Investigating enterprise application integration (EAI) adoption in the local government authorities (LGAs)

Abstract

This thesis focuses on investigating Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) adoption in the Local Government Authorities (LGAs). EAI has emerged to support organisations to integrate their Information Technology (IT) infrastructures and deliver high quality of services. Despite the fact that several private and public organisations have adopted EAI, its application in LGAs is limited. This may illustrate that LGAs develop EAI solutions at a slower pace and they can be characterised as a laggard comparing to other sectors. The small number of EAI applications in LGAs has resulted in limited research in this area with many issues, like its adoption requiring further investigation. Literature indicates various models that analyse various factors influencing EAI adoption in the private and public domain. However, the applicability and validity of these models is arguable and under research in LGAs, as these were proposed to support the decision-making process in other sectors and not in LGAs. To the best of the researcher's knowledge, none of the existing EAI adoption models explored the importance of factors during different phases of the adoption lifecycle. Notwithstanding, the implications of EAI have yet to be assessed, leaving scope for timeliness and novel research. Thus, the researcher demonstrates that it is of high importance to investigate this area within LGAs and result in research that contributes towards successful EAI adoption. This thesis makes a step forward and contributes to the body of knowledge as it: investigates factors influencing the decision making process for EAI adoption in LGAs (Figure 3.2), analyses and proposes the adoption lifecycle phases (Figure 3.3), maps and prioritises the importance of EAI adoption factors on different phases of the adoption lifecycle (Chapter 5 for empirical results) and in doing so, to propose a model for EAI adoption in LGAs (Figure 3.7). The researcher claims that such an EAI adoption process in LGAs is significant and novel as: it extends established norms for EAI adoption, by including Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique for prioritising the importance of factors, thus, enabling LGAs to produce more robust proposals for EAI adoption. The researcher discusses on EAI adoption by using a qualitative, interpretive, multiple case study research strategy. Findings from three case organisations exhibit that such an approach contributes towards more robust decisions for EAI adoption and indicates that it is acceptable by the case organisations. Despite these results cannot be generalised, yet they can allow others to relate their views with the ones reported in this thesis. This thesis proposes, tests and presents a novel model for EAI adoption in LGAs and contributes to the body of knowledge by extending the literature.