Examining Influences on eGovernment Growth in the Transition Economies of Central and Eastern Europe: Evidence from Panel Data Cited: Ifinedo (2011). Examining Influences on E-government Growth in the Transition Economies of Central and Eastern Europe: Evidence from Panel Data, 11th European Conference on eGovernment (ECEG 2011), June 16 - 17, 2011, Ljubljana, Slovenia, pp. 310 - 319. Princely Ifinedo Cape Breton University, Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada princely_ifinedo@cbu.ca Abstract: This research examines the impact or influence of six (6) relevant factors on E-gov growth in Transition Economies of Central and Eastern Europe (TECEE). A 5-year panel data of sixteen (16) TECEE categorized as Leaders and Followers was used for data analysis in conjunction with the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) technique. To test the influence of the selected factors on E-gov growth in the region, six hypotheses were developed accordingly. The results supported four (4) hypotheses indicating that E-gov growth in TECEE is positively influenced by such factors as national wealth i.e. GDP per capita, democratic/political rights, quality human capital resources, and government efficiency. The data did not confirm the significance of technological infrastructure and rule of law on the growth of E-gov in the region. The implications of the findings for research and policy making are discussed. Keywords: Transition Economies of Central and Eastern Europe (TECEE), eGovernment, new growth theory, regional development theory, regional eGovernment divide, contextual factors 1. Introduction Electronic government (E-gov) is described by the World Bank as the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) including the Internet to transform governance (InfoDev, 2004). Essentially, E-gov allows government’s services to be more effective and accessible to citizens (Fountain, 2001; Moon, 2002; West, 2004). Empirical data from international agencies, consulting organizations, and research shows that E-gov has become a global phenomenon with nearly all governments around the world adopting it to promote citizen engagement and empowerment (Accenture 2001, West, 2007; UN Public Administration Programme, 2010). Although E-gov is popular around the globe, there are parts of the world where slow progress have been reported (Norris, 2001, Gascó, 2005; Siau & Long, 2006; Singh et al., 2007; Azad et al., 2010). In fact, evidence indicates that more economically endowed countries occupy the upper echelons of innovators or adopters of advanced E-gov initiatives (West, 2007; Azad et al., 2010; UN Public Administration Programme, 2010). Norris (2001) asserted that the emerging digital divide (in this case, E-gov divide) has three distinct aspects: the social digital divide, the democratic digital divide, and the global digital divide. Gascó (2005) noted that the regional digital divide is a variation of the global digital divide in the sense that it signifies the differences that exist in E-gov initiatives between countries from the same geographical region. For instance, while the E-gov index (i.e. an indicator of a country’s EGovernment adoption) for Eastern European countries averaged 0.5449 in 2010, Hungary and Belarus had 0.6315 and 0.4900 respectively (UN Public Administration Programme, 2010) to indicate the existence of regional differences. In view of the disparities that exist at regional levels, it is argued that more attention needs to be paid to understanding E-gov issues at the regional level to enrich insight. Very little has been written about the factors impacting the growth or development of E-gov in Transition Economies of Central and Eastern Europe (TECEE). Two considerations informed the choice of TECEE for examination in this study. First, TECEE share a common political and cultural history (Ifinedo & Davidrajuh, 2005) as most countries in the region only recently metamorphosed from centrally planned systems to free market democracies. Thus, it is pertinent to continue monitoring progress in TECEE especially with regard to ICT use for development and governance (Levada, 2004; Alexander, 2004; EU Regional Policy; 2009). Second, researchers such as Roztocki and Weistroffer (2008) indicated a lack of adequate research related to information systems and technologies (IS/IT) issues in TECEE; they called on researchers to focus on such issues in that part of Europe. As E-gov initiatives aim at reforming and