Rethinking the assessment of e-government implementation in developing countries from the perspective of the design–reality gap: Applications in the Indonesian e-procurement system

•STOPE model is used to fit in the context of developing countries in e-government.•Critical factors constituting the model were identified.•AHP is combined with the framework for higher usability.•Application to Indonesia e-procurement proves the usefulness of the method.

E-government has received increasing attention as an innovative method for improved governance, and many countries are channeling their efforts and resources into its development. However, the outcomes of e-government development have varied across countries and particularly across developing countries. Because developing countries generally have a poorer context than developed countries, they confront many challenges in e-government implementation. This paper proposes a method for assessing e-government implementation in developing countries to help them better identify problems and determine the appropriate responses to achieve their goals. Taking the design–reality gap perspective, the strategy, technology, organization, people, and environment (STOPE) framework is adopted and combined with the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). This method bridges the gap between theory and practice. The Indonesian e-procurement system is used as a case study to demonstrate the use of the proposed framework.