Two hypotheses derived from the competition model.

Are these hypotheses null or alternative hypotheses? If null (alternative), specify corresponding alternative (null) hypotheses.

Their proposed model emphasizes citizen characteristics and factors related to increasing citizen satisfaction through online services, such as providing 24/7, secure, and reliable experiences online. This model suggests that higher levels of citizen satisfaction should lead to higher levels of e-government adoption and use. Research at a national and cross-national level, such as why One nation more readily adopts e-government or e-democracy than another. Nations is the unit of analysis, develops the aggregate viewpoint of innovation and diffusion, and applies four models based on arguments summarized to analyze what factors are likely to lead a country to use e-government ore-democracy policies at a more developed level. Two of the factors-learning and competition-can be viewed as strictly related to diffusion, while the third and fourth factors-national norms and citizen pressures-share some diffusion characteristics but also are internal factors within countries. Rogers defines the phenomenon of diffusion as "the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system". In the past five years, an increasing number of authors have conducted cross-national diffusion studies. Our study considers four theoretical reasons for policy diffusion and innovation-competition, learning, coercion/ normative norms, and citizen pressure-as related to national-level e-government and e-democracy development. This is the first empirical study to assess the determinants of e-government and e-democracy separately, so we have no empirical basis for expecting them to behave differently, and we hypothesize that they will be influenced similarly by the four theoretical models. The four models can be described as follows. First, in the competition model, governments are assumed to compete with each other, and they may be especially sensitive to competition with nearby or neighboring states or countries. They emulate policies from other states or countries to gain economic advantages or to avoid being disadvantaged. That countries with similar cultural and political systems feel pressure to keep up with each other, while they are more likely to learn from each other, too. Therefore, according to the competition model, neighboring countries' e-government and e-democracy performance should play a key role in a country's own e-government and e-democracy development.

H1 : A nation that is adjacent to one or more neighboring countries with high e-government performance will be more likely to have a higher e-government ranking.

H2 : A nation that is adjacent to one or more neighboring countries with high e-democracy performance will be more likely to have a higher e-democracy ranking.