article · The Journal of Strategic Information Systems
Government-led digital transformation can address significant institutional voids in resource-constrained environments beyond merely digitising existing public services. Based on sixty interviews across the Ghanaian financial technology ecosystem, the research conceptualises a digital branching strategy tailored to the specific operational realities and constraints of public sector bodies. Governments in such environments achieve transformation by adopting frugal innovations and drawing upon existing ecosystem resources, structures, and relationships. A resulting process model details the mechanisms driving national transformation initiatives. Adopting a digital branching strategy generates both planned and emergent outcomes due to the inherently generative nature of digital systems, providing a strategic pathway for national policy leaders seeking to modernise financial and public service ecosystems efficiently.
Public sector leaders facing resource constraints often struggle to implement standard technological transformation programmes. By demonstrating how governments can build on established relationships and low-cost innovations rather than expensive custom deployments, this work shows how emerging economies can expand financial technology ecosystems and resolve long-standing institutional voids without prohibitive expenditure.
The research presents an analytical framework and process model rather than a commercial product, situating it at the stage of early-stage strategic research. It offers practical guidance for national policymakers, financial regulators, and ecosystem orchestrators. These stakeholders can apply the concepts of frugal innovation and digital branching to plan and coordinate digital finance platforms in developing markets where public capital and legacy infrastructure are restricted.
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In this paper, we report on a qualitative exploratory case study of a national-level government-led digital transformation. We depart from most studies on government digital transformation that largely focus on improving existing services, bureaucratic processes, or adopting emerging digital technologies. Instead, we analyze the process of a government-led digital transformation aimed at addressing significant institutional voids within a resource-constrained context. Drawing from 60 interviews with stakeholders in the Ghanaian FinTech ecosystem, we theorize the concept of digital branching strategy as an alternative lens to envisage government-led digital transformation that considers the resource-constrained context and characteristics of governments. Our findings show that governments, especially those in resource-constrained contexts pursue digital transformation through exploring frugal innovations and leveraging established resources, structures, and relationships within an ecosystem. We subsequently develop a process model to explain the mechanisms of a national-level government-led digital transformation. Based on the findings and the model, our study offers critical insights to re-imagine government-led digital transformation in resource-constrained contexts by demonstrating how pursuing a digital branching strategy leads to planned and emergent outcomes because of the generative nature of the transformation.
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DOI: 10.1016/j.jsis.2024.101849
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