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A MATTER OF TRUST AND EMOTIONS: A COMPLEXITY THEORY APPROACH TO EXPLAIN THE ADOPTION OF E- GOVERNMENT SERVICES
Abstract
This research uses complexity theory to offer a deeper insight on the causal patterns of factors explaining the adoption of e-government services. To this end, we propose a conceptual model comprising of affective factors (positive and negative emotions) and cognitive factors (trust of the government, trust of the service, and perceived net benefits of e-government services) along with research propositions. Our propositions are validated by employing a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) on a sample of 502 users of e-government services. Findings indicate five configurations of cognitive and affective perceptions that lead to high intention to use an e-government service. Of paramount importance are affective values and trust values since their mandatory presence or absence is incorporated in all configurations. The study has both theoretical and practical implications for academic scholars pertaining the development of new e-government adoption theories and the provision of e-government services.
... A complexity theory lens is espoused, arguing that firm behavior is shaped by a complex combination of interacting conditions. Kourouthanassis et al. (2016) noted that complexity theory addresses the limitations of existing approaches that merely capture single and isolated effects. ...
... This view is underpinned by the complexity theory, which outlines the premise that the sought outcome is predicted by alternative combinations of factors. It also argues that, for an outcome to occur, the presence and absence of causal conditions depend on their combination with one another (Fiss, 2011;Woodside, 2013;Kourouthanassis et al., 2016). Relationships among variables are complex and interdependent, which is often disregarded by variance-based approaches (Cooper and Glaesser, 2011). ...
Despite the pervasiveness of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, few studies have examined the adoption of smart factories. Scholars have long examined firms' willingness to adopt smart factories. Thus, this study heeds this call by investigating the factors driving the adoption of smart factories. It employs a fuzzy-set configuration approach to capture the complex interactions underlying these drivers in the context of South Korean marine equipment firms. Based on data from a sample of 180 respondents, the findings revealed four complex paths with factors including government support, the entrepreneurial spirit of top management, efficiency expectation, and financial preparedness shaping the high and low implementation of smart factories. Theoretically, the findings are an exception to extant technology acceptance models. Practically, the attention of practitioners in South Korea and other similar contexts was drawn.
... As a future step, we additionally plan to examine civic engagement as a third order construct, in which the related categories sharing/liking and commenting/posting are summarised as second-order construct. Finally, we plan to apply fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) [24], which enables us to identify the necessary and sufficient conditions for an outcome to occur [25,26] and get more in-depth insights into the relationships between the concepts. ...
Social media offer various opportunities for civic engagement by, e.g., liking, sharing, or posting relevant content. Users’ motivation to contribute to relevant topics is quite divers and can stem from an intrinsic motivation to do good or external incentives such as being recognised and rewarded by other users. In our study, we adopt self-determination theory, which defines motivation as broad continuum ranging from intrinsic motivation to external regulation. We conducted a quantitative survey with 667 Facebook users to identify how the different kinds of motivation impact the users’ behaviour in terms of reading, liking, sharing, commenting, and posting topics relevant to civic engagement. Our results suggest that social media users are mainly driven by intrinsic motivation while different forms of extrinsic motivation play a less important role.
... Examining the mutual impacts of variables allows researchers to explore asymmetrical relationships between causes and outcomes. Recent past, a number of studies have employed complexity theory and configurational analysis via fsQCA to understand complex phenomena such as mobile learning (Pappas et al. 2019), personalised ecommerce (Pappas et al. 2017), adoption of e-government services (Kourouthanassis et al. 2016), tourism expenditure (Olya and Mehran 2017), and corporate bankruptcy (Boratyńska 2016). In this manner, we believe using complexity theory and following configurational approach enable us to uncover the complex relationships between digitalisation and sustainability. ...
Sustainable competitiveness (SC) encourages nations not only to meet the needs of the current generation but also to sustain or even expand national wealth in the future without depleting natural and social capital. Drawing on complexity theory, we used a configurational approach to identify under what necessary and sufficient conditions, digitalisation contributes to achieve higher SC. Shifting attention from net effects to configuration analysis improves our understanding of cross-national differences in sustainability by exploring how the digitalisation factors combine to strengthen SC power across countries. To address the complexity of this configuration, we have incorporated fsQCA and NCA techniques in the modelling of high and low levels of sustainable competitiveness recipes. Analysis of data from 127 countries advanced our perception of how access to ICT infrastructures and capabilities, combined with the adoption and usage of ICT could result in different degrees of sustainable competitiveness. Theoretically, this study contributes to the literature on digitalisation and national sustainability; and it can practically act as a guideline for policymakers to understand the complex interactions and causal configurations of digitalisation factors on sustainability.
... In this study we employ fsQCA, using fs/QCA 2.5 ( Ragin et al., 2014). FsQCA was developed by combining fuzzy sets and logic principles with Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) (Ragin, 2000), and has been applied in various fields, such as business, information systems, technology adop- tion ( Kourouthanassis et al., 2016;Pappas et al., 2016), including social commerce ( Chari et al., 2016;Mikalef et al., 2016). FsQCA is able to guide the researchers beyond the traditional MRAs and offer them the opportunity to identify multiple pathways that are able to explain the same outcome. ...
This study aims to explain how value co-creation, between customers and companies, and key aspects of trust combine to influence customers' purchase intentions in social commerce. Value co-creation is decomposed into two attributes, behavioral alignment, and empowerment and control, while trust is measured through the aspects of trusting beliefs, institutional trust, and disposition to trust. In order to examine the interplay of these factors and their combined effect on purchase intentions in social commerce , a conceptual model is developed and examined on a data sample of 379 users with experience in social commerce, through fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). The findings indicate five configurations that lead to high intentions to purchase in social commerce, and three configurations that inhibit purchase intentions. The outcomes of the analysis show that value co-creation may be more important than trust in achieving high purchase intentions, while avoiding low/medium purchase intentions. This study contributes to the social commerce literature by demonstrating how value co-creation and trust interrelate and how their interplay influences purchase intentions.
... Complexity theory and configuration theory are appropriate for explaining the complex interrelations existing among variables, since the way they combine and their interdependencies are the ones leading to the desired outcome (Fiss, 2007;Woodside, 2014;Wu et al., 2014). We expand on the contributions of other studies from the areas of sociology (Ragin, 2008), business management (Pappas et al., 2016b), marketing (Wu et al., 2014), e-government (Kourouthanassis et al., 2016), learning (Pappas et al., 2016a,c) and others. ...
Among the biggest challenges rural areas currently face are the impact of demographic change and limited mobility offers. While younger people tend to either move to urban areas or have their own car at hand for satisfying everyday needs, elderly or people with compromised health suffer most from these challenges. They prefer to live in their habitual and familiar environment and remain mobile for as long as possible. To enable self-determined living in rural areas and to make rural areas more attractive as places to live, municipalities and regions with substantial rural character need to develop concepts and modern digital solutions to achieve these objectives. In this paper, we introduce stakeholder-driven requirements elicitation for a mobility platform, which supports local communities and citizens in remaining autonomous in their living. The aim of the mobile app is to intelligently match offers of different mobility providers (e.g. voluntary drivers, public transportation services, taxis drivers etc.) with citizens’ mobility demands in rural areas. Citizens needing a ride can find, book and pay the best offer for their journeys through the app. They can also rate the mobility service after its use. In the paper, we present the findings from 60 semi-structured face-to-face interviews with elderly in rural areas, thereby applying qualitative and quantitative content analysis. The empirical results were transcribed, categorized and analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. We conclude with recommendations for the design and implementation of the mobility app.
This article is based on the adaptation of Ajzen’s theory of planned behavior (TPB) to build an entrepreneurial intention framework tailored to the specific context of researchers involved in eco-label industry, who can be perceived as nascent entrepreneurs. The entrepreneurial intention model is tested on a convenience sample of researchers involved in eco-label industry from a wide range of countries. The configurational effect of research experience, personal attitude, funding instruments and entrepreneurial education level is tested for causal condition related to entrepreneurial intention of 25 eco-label researchers. The qualitative approach of data reveals that research experience and personal attitude relate positively to entrepreneurial career intentions and that these relationships are mediated by entrepreneurial education level. A multi-sided online platform connecting innovators and potential investors is considered a suitable solution for funding respondents’ results of research and innovation activities. Stimulating entrepreneurial motivations and intentions may help researchers to better adapt to alternative career perspectives. Results of this study suggest several ways to stimulate entrepreneurial career choices among researchers involved in eco-label industry.
This study focuses on the important national issue of sustainable development, and by incorporating the conditions for digital transformation reveals the necessary and sufficient relationships that lead to a high or low level of national sustainability. In order to deepen our knowledge of the prerequisites for the desirable outcome (i.e. higher levels of sustainability), we proposed a configurational model combining the available national data on digitalization dimensions. To empirically analyse related data for 134 countries, we used Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis and Necessary Condition Analysis. Our findings suggest multiple asymmetric configurations that justify the high and low levels of the Sustainability Global Index Score as well as the significance of digitalization for achieving sustainable development goals. The NCA and fsQCA solutions provide novel insights into varying sustainability levels across countries, and how 10 dimensions of digital transformation readiness contribute to this. The results also highlight the role of skills and business usage as core conditions for sustainability solutions. This research theoretically enhances our perception of asymmetric interactions between national digital transformation and sustainability and can serve a pragmatic role in steering sustainability strategies and national digital transformation.
This study focuses on the important national issue of sustainable development, and by incorporating the conditions for digital transformation reveals the necessary and sufficient relationships that lead to a high or low level of national sustainability. In order to deepen our knowledge of the prerequisites for the desirable outcome (i.e. higher levels of sustainability), we proposed a configurational model combining the available national data on digitalization dimensions. To empirically analyse related data for 134 countries, we used Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis and Necessary Condition Analysis. Our findings suggest multiple asymmetric configurations that justify the high and low levels of the Sustainability Global Index Score as well as the significance of digitalization for achieving sustainable development goals. The NCA and fsQCA solutions provide novel insights into varying sustainability levels across countries, and how 10 dimensions of digital transformation readiness con-tribute to this. The results also highlight the role of skills and business usage as core conditions for sustainability solutions. This research theoretically enhances our perception of asymmetric interactions between national digital transformation and sustainability and can serve a pragmatic role in steering sustainability strategies and national digital transformation.
This study focuses on the important national issue of sustainable development, and by incorporating the conditions for digital transformation reveals the necessary and sufficient relationships that lead to a high or low level of national sustainability. In order to deepen our knowledge of the prerequisites for the desirable outcome (i.e. higher levels of sustainability), we proposed a configurational model combining the available national data on digitalization dimensions. To empirically analyse related data for 134 countries, we used Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis and Necessary Condition Analysis. Our findings suggest multiple asymmetric configurations that justify the high and low levels of the Sustainability Global Index Score as well as the significance of digitalization for achieving sustainable development goals. The NCA and fsQCA solutions provide novel insights into varying sustainability levels across countries, and how 10 dimensions of digital transformation readiness con-tribute to this. The results also highlight the role of skills and business usage as core conditions for sustainability solutions. This research theoretically enhances our perception of asymmetric interactions between national digital transformation and sustainability and can serve a pragmatic role in steering sustainability strategies and national digital transformation.
Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) has increasingly become popular in Information Systems (IS) research. However, there are several pitfalls and bad practices when applying QCA. Therefore, we aim at providing an extensive overview of (1) how QCA has been applied so far in IS research and (2) how future QCA-based IS research can be improved. To do so, we review articles from IS journals and conferences using an extensive coding scheme based on methodological literature and QCA reviews from other research disciplines. First, our results show standards of reporting and justification, well established in other disciplines, are often not fulfilled. Second, we find that extant research is predominantly based on large-N analyses, which limits some of the key capabilities of QCA. Third, we show that necessity analysis is under- and sometimes even misused. Lastly, extant research suffers from low solution coverage values that are not adequately discussed and sensitivity analyses that are not employed frequently. Our findings represent the current state of QCA in IS research and highlight the potential for improvement in future QCA studies.
The purpose of this paper is to introduce fuzzy-sets Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) as the appropriate method in order to explore the causal configurations of capabilities related to future Multiple Project Management software, which is expected to be used by eco-label industry project managers as a testing tool in their forthcoming work. Results show that eight different configurations of MPM software capabilities affect the outcome, encouraging the eco-label industry actors’ interest of testing and using its features. We have also identified a necessary condition for the intention of testing and using the multiple project management software, represented by a combination of high capability in the provision of a shared resource pool to all project managers, high ability of leveling over-allocated resources identified within projects, and low capability of performing comparisons of target and real values for the assessment criteria of performance, costs and time, added to high capability of monitoring activities’ progress according to milestone deadlines.
The analysis illustrates how powerful fsQCA is as a method for exploring the complexity of multi-project environments, being also able to provide useful information to MPM software designers and developers from the perspective of users expectations.
The GRID study has provided a wealth of new data of high relevance to understand the semantics of emotion terms. This data can be profitably applied to create new tools for emotion research, or to further develop the existing ones. Here, we illustrate one such application by describing how the GRID paradigm was used to improve and further validate a popular tool for emotion assessment, namely the Geneva Emotion Wheel (GEW), a self-report measure of feelings.
The services section has started to dominate economic activity in many industrialized economies since the last decade. The growth of services in Electronic Mediated Environment (EME) has changed the manner in which firms and consumers interact. Drawing on such theoretical foundations as trust, risk perceptions, trying, emotion, and satisfaction, this study proposes an integrative research model to investigate the relationships among these constructs in the EME context. We collected data from 415 consumers and found that consumer innovativeness and emotion are significant antecedents of trust, risk perception of service, perceived benefits, and service quality. These important factors will influence consumer satisfaction in EME. This empirical investigation breaks a new ground for future studies to understand and gauge the influence of innovativeness and emotion in emerging IT artifacts such as EME services.
As an alternative to using the concepts of emotion, fear, anger, and the like as scientific tools, this article advocates an approach based on the concepts of core affect and psychological construction, expanding the domain of inquiry beyond "emotion". Core affect is a neurophysiological state that underlies simply feeling good or bad, drowsy or energised. Psychological construction is not one process but an umbrella term for the various processes that produce: (a) a particular emotional episode's "components" (such as facial movement, vocal tone, peripheral nervous system change, appraisal, attribution, behaviour, subjective experience, and emotion regulation); (b) associations among the components; and (c) the categorisation of the pattern of components as a specific emotion.
This research presents a mobile augmented reality (MAR) travel guide, named CorfuAR, which supports personalized recommendations. We report the development process and devise a theoretical model that explores the adoption of MAR applications through their emotional impact. A field study on Corfu visitors (n=105) shows that the functional properties of CorfuAR evoke feelings of pleasure and arousal, which, in turn, influence the behavioral intention of using it. This is the first study that empirically validates the relation between functional system properties, user emotions, and adoption behavior. The paper discusses also the theoretical and managerial implications of our study.
Recognizing Gigerenzer's (1991) dictum that scientists' tools are not neutral (tools-in-use influence theory formulation as well as data interpretation), this article reports theory and examines data in ways that transcend the dominant logics for variable-based and case-based analyses. The theory and data analysis tests key propositions in complexity theory: (1) no single antecedent condition is a sufficient or necessary indicator of a high score in an outcome condition; (2) a few of many available complex configurations of antecedent conditions are sufficient indicators of high scores in an outcome condition; (3) contrarian cases occur, that is, low scores in a single antecedent condition associates with both high and low scores for an outcome condition for different cases; (4) causal asymmetry occurs, that is, accurate causal models for high scores for an outcome condition are not the mirror opposites of causal models for low scores for the same outcome condition. The study tests and supports these propositions in the context of customer assessments (n = 436) of service facets and service outcome evaluations for assisted temporary-transformations of self via beauty salon and spa treatments. The findings contribute to advancing a nuanced theory of how customers' service evaluations relate to their assessments of overall service quality and intentions to use the service. The findings support the need for service managers to be vigilant in fine-tuning service facets and service enactment to achieve the objective of high customer retention.
Personalized services are diffusing rapidly in online shopping communities. However, the current understanding of the influence of personalization is limited. This study extends personalization literature into the area of emotions related to intention to purchase and into the context of online shopping. Responses from 182 online shoppers were used to examine the impact of personalization on customer emotions and intention to purchase. The results show that there is a direct positive association between personalization and pur-chase intentions. In addition, provision of personalization features in e-shops may evoke positive emotions to online shoppers but does not evoke nor mitigate negative ones. Finally, our study reports that emotions influence online shop-ping behavior either positively, through the formulation of positive emotions, or negatively, through negative emotions. These findings indicate that positive emotions mediate the relationship between personalization and purchase intentions. Our study concludes with a critical appraisal of our findings and a discussion of prospective theoretical and managerial implications for e-shop practitioners.
The purpose of this paper is to perform a weight-analysis and to undertake a meta-analysis of findings reported in published research on the adoption and diffusion of e-government. Usable data relating to e-government adoption research were collected from 103 empirical studies. Of those 103 articles, only 63 used a range of different constructs with appropriate correlation values required for performing a weight- and meta-analysis. Diagrammatic representation has been presented using significant as well as non-significant relationships from all 103 publications. A broader analysis of research on adoption and diffusion of e-government also reflects that although a large number of theories and theoretical constructs were borrowed from the reference disciplines, their utilization by e-government researchers appears to be largely random in approach. This paper also acknowledges the theoretical contribution, the limitations of this study, and suggests further research directions for the continued work.
This editorial suggests moving beyond relying on the dominant logic of multiple regression analysis (MRA) toward thinking and using algorithms in advancing and testing theory in accounting, consumer research, finance, management, and marketing. The editorial includes an example of testing an MRA model for fit and predictive validity. The same data used for the MRA is used to conduct a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). The editorial reviews a number of insights by prominent scholars including Gerd Gigerenzer's treatise that “Scientists' tools are not neutral.” Tools impact thinking and theory crafting as well theory testing. The discussion may be helpful for early career scholars unfamiliar with David C. McClelland's brilliance in data analysis and in introducing business research scholars to fsQCA as an alternative tool for theory development and data analysis.
Typologies are an important way of organizing the complex cause-effect relationships that are key building blocks of the strategy and organization literatures. Here, I develop a novel theoretical perspective on causal core and periphery, which is based on how elements of a configuration are connected to outcomes. Using data on hightechnology firms, I empirically investigate configurations based on the Miles and Snow typology using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). My findings show how the theoretical perspective developed here allows for a detailed analysis of causal core, periphery, and asymmetry, shifting the focus to midrange theories of causal processes.
Declining citizen trust in government is an important driver for NPM-style reforms. Increasing people’s knowledge by providing factual knowledge about government performance outcomes is seen as an important way of increasing citizen trust in government. Does this promise hold or is knowledge about performance outcomes not that important? Two rivalling hypotheses are being investigated. One proposition postulates a link between knowledge and trust, whereas the alternative hypothesis borrows from social-psychological research arguing that subconscious and affective cues are more important. In order to investigate this question, this article presents the results of an experiment ( N = 658) investigating the effect of performance outcome transparency on citizen trust in a specific government organization. Four groups visited different websites with varying degrees of transparency and performance outcome. The results demonstrate that the link between transparency and trust in a government organization is determined by a mix of knowledge and feelings. Further, the overall effect of transparency is limited. Pre-existing and fundamental ideas about what government does and whether it is benign or not are far more determining than a single experience with a government organization. This article concludes that knowledge about performance outcomes is only part of the link between transparency and trust, and that more realistic views about transparency’s effects should be developed.
Points for practitioners
Transparency is generally hailed by many as the key to trust in government. This study shows that the magnitude of transparency on citizens’ trust in government is often exaggerated as most people have pre-existing, fundamental beliefs about government which are only marginally influenced by transparency. However, transparency can contribute to maintaining existing trust levels through a mix of people’s cognition and feeling about government. Transparency is necessary, yet professionals in public management and administration should develop realistic expectations about what transparency can really achieve for trust in government.
This article asks how Internet use, citizen satisfaction with e-government, and citizen trust in government are interrelated. We first review the literature on trust and explore how radical information technologies may work to alter the production or maintenance of trust. We then develop hypotheses about how citizens' experience with e-government, satisfaction with e-government and government Web sites, and trust in government are interrelated. Moreover, the model for e-government and Web site satisfaction incorporates citizen perspectives on electronic transaction, transparency, and interactivity. Using data obtained from the Council on Excellence in Government, we then develop and test a two-stage multiple-equation model that simultaneously predicts experience, satisfaction, and trust. Findings indicate that government Web site use is positively associated with e-government satisfaction and Web site satisfaction and that e-government satisfaction is positively associated with trust in government. We also find that while citizens are generally satisfied with the electronic provision of information (transparency), there is some dissatisfaction with the transaction and interactivity of Web sites. We conclude that electronic government strategies—transaction, transparency, and interactivity—are important factors that directly affect e-government satisfaction and indirectly affect trust. Individuals who use government Web sites are not only critical consumers but also demanding citizens.
In this article, an attempt is made to explain the descriptive data of a large-scale representative survey of the use of government Internet services by the Dutch population in 2006 by means of a multidisciplinary model of technology acceptance and use that is applied to these services. Ultimately, the model is tested with structural equation modeling techniques. It appears to fit to the data after some modifications and exclusion of variables. The ultimate model could be used to explain the acceptance and use of government Internet services. The larger correlation model could serve as a framework for research of Internet services in general.The social–demographic and psychological factors usually investigated in new technology acceptance and usage research do not prove to be strong here. Instead, it is demonstrated that the availability of Internet services, the knowledge of this availability, the preference to use digital channels, and the ability and experience to do this are the primary conditions.The most general conclusion drawn is that the acceptance and use of government Internet services is a matter of learning, and that acceptance and use should be analyzed as a dynamic process. People will stick to their habits of using traditional channels unless they happen to learn a better alternative.Governments are recommended to add a demand-side orientation and benchmarking for the supply of government Internet services and to develop service tracking technologies monitoring usage and users.
Are trust and risk important in consumers' electronic commerce purchasing decisions? What are the antecedents of trust and risk in this context? How do trust and risk affect an Internet consumer's purchasing decision? To answer these questions, we i) develop a theoretical framework describing the trust-based decision-making process a consumer uses when making a purchase from a given site, ii) test the proposed model using a Structural Equation Modeling technique on Internet consumer purchasing behavior data collected via a Web survey, and iii) consider the implications of the model. The results of the study show that Internet consumers' trust and perceived risk have strong impacts on their purchasing decisions. Consumer disposition to trust, reputation, privacy concerns, security concerns, the information quality of the Website, and the company's reputation, have strong effects on Internet consumers' trust in the Website. Interestingly, the presence of a third-party seal did not strongly influence consumers' trust.
Social psychologists conceptualize trust in a manner that differs from conceptualizations used by marketing researchers to date. Building from the social psychology literature, we posit that interpersonal trust in consumer-level service relationships has cognitive and affective dimensions. We examine the relative impact of service provider expertise, product performance, firm reputation, satisfaction, and similarity in influencing customer's perception of these dimensions of trust in a service provider. Using survey data from 349 customers of a firm of financial advisers in the United Kingdom, our results show that cognitive and affective dimensions of trust can be empirically distinguished and have both common and unique antecedents. The results also provide further clarification concerning the relationship between trust and sales effectiveness.
The article proposes a reorientation of the e-government maturity models by focusing IT applications to improve the core activities and bring end-users as the key stakeholders for future e-government investments. The proposed Public Sector Process Rebuilding (PPR) maturity model is an extension of the Layne and Lee model.
This study presents two extensions to the two-stage expectation confirmation theory of information systems (IS) continuance. First, we expand the belief set from perceived usefulness in the original IS continuance model to include three additional predictors identified in the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology, namely effort expectancy, social influence and facilitating conditions. Second, we ground the IS continuance model in the context of transactional systems that involve transmission of personal and sensitive information and include trust as a key contextual belief in the model. To test the expanded IS continuance model, we conducted a longitudinal field study of 3159 Hong Kong citizens across two electronic government (e-government) technologies that enable citizens’ access to government services. In general, the results support the expanded model that provides a rich understanding of the changes in the preusage beliefs and attitudes through the emergent constructs of disconfirmation and satisfaction, ultimately influencing IS continuance intention. Finally, we discuss the theoretical and practical implications of the expanded model.
With the liberalization and globalization, Internet has been used as a medium of transaction in almost all aspects of human living. This study is investigating the factors that influencing the intention to use e-government service among Malaysians. This study integrates constructs from the models of Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) which been moderated by culture factor and trust model with five dimensions. Structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 195 respondents. The result of the analysis showed that trust, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, compatibility, perceived relative advantage and perceived image respectively has a direct positive significant relationship towards intention to use e-government service and perceived complexity has a significant negative relationship towards intention to use e-government service. While perceived strength of online privacy protection and perceived strength of data integrity have a positive impact on a citizen's trust to use e-government service. However, the uncertainty avoidance (moderating factor) used in the study has no significant effect on the relationship between the innovation factors (compatibility, complexity, relative advantage and image) and intention to use e-government service. Finally in comparing the explanatory power of the entire intention based model (TAM, DOI and Trust) with the studied model, it has been found that the DOI model has a better explanatory power.
Trust, which has been found to be a significant facilitator for the adoption and usage of new business paradigms like e-commerce, is relatively unexplored in the context of e-government. Using trust literature as the theoretical lens, we propose an e-government trust grid for the adoption and usage of e-government, comprising two dimensions: 'trust in government' and 'trust in Inter-net technology.' Based on their levels of trust in the two identified dimensions, nations can fall into one of four quadrants: Adversarial, Competitive, Cooperative, and Collaborative. Using focus groups and interviews with young adults in Singapore, we find that in recent years, Singapore is evolving from the cooperative (low trust in Internet technology and high trust in government) to the collaborative (high trust in Internet technology and high trust in government) quadrant. The study delineates a set of lessons learned from the Singapore experience for engendering citizen trust in e-government. These lessons for governments are: solicit feedback from citizens, demonstrate top leadership commitment and support, build institutional trust, cultivate IT literacy, and enact comprehensive and effective legal systems.
This article asks how Internet use, citizen satisfaction with e-government, and citizen trust in government are interrelated. We first review the literature on trust and explore how radical information technologies may work to alter the production or maintenance of trust. We then develop hypotheses about how citizens' experience with e-government, satisfaction with e-government and government Web sites, and trust in government are interrelated. Moreover, the model for e-government and Web site satisfaction incorporates citizen perspectives on electronic transaction, transparency, and interactivity. Using data obtained from the Council on Excellence in Government, we then develop and test a two-stage multiple-equation model that simultaneously predicts experience, satisfaction, and trust. Findings indicate that government Web site use is positively associated with e-government satisfaction and Web site satisfaction and that e-government satisfaction is positively associated with trust in government. We also find that while citizens are generally satisfied with the electronic provision of information (transparency), there is some dissatisfaction with the transaction and interactivity of Web sites. We conclude that electronic government strategies-transaction, transparency, and interactivity-are important factors that directly affect e-government satisfaction and indirectly affect trust. Individuals who use government Web sites are not only critical consumers but also demanding citizens.
Although trust is an underdeveloped concept in sociology, promising theoretical formulations are available in the recent work
of Luhmann and Barber. This sociological version complements the psychological and attitudinal conceptualizations of experimental
and survey researchers. Trust is seen to include both emotional and cognitive dimensions and to function as a deep assumption
underwriting social order. Contemporary examples such as lying, family exchange, monetary attitudes, and litigation illustrate
the centrality of trust as a sociological reality.
Configurational Comparative Methods paves the way for an innovative approach to empirical scientific work through a strategy that integrates key strengths of both qualitative (case-oriented) and quantitative (variable-oriented) approaches. This first-of-its-kind text is ideally suited for "small-N" or "intermediate-N" research situations, which both mainstream qualitative and quantitative methods find difficult to address. Benoit Rihoux and Charles C. Ragin, along with their contributing authors, offer both a basic, comparative research design overview and a technical and hands-on review of Crisp-Set QCA (csQCA), Multi-Value QCA (mvQCA), and Fuzzy-Set QCA (fsQCA).
Affect is a critical factor in human decisions and behaviors within many social contexts. In the information and communication technology (ICT) context, a growing number of studies consider the affective dimension of human interaction with ICTs. However, few of these studies take systematic approaches, resulting in inconsistent conclusions and contradictory advice for researchers and practitioners. Many of these issues stem
from ambiguous conceptualizations of various affective concepts and their relationships. Before researchers can address questions such as “what causes affective responses in an ICT context” and “what impacts do affective responses have on human interaction with ICTs,” a theoretical foundation for affective concepts and their relationships has to be established.
This theory and review paper addresses three research questions: (1) What are pertinent affective concepts in the ICT context? (2) In what ways are these affective concepts similar to, or different from each other? (3) How do these affective concepts relate to or influence one another? Based on theoretical reasoning and empirical evidence, the affective response model (ARM) is developed. ARM is a theoretically bound conceptual framework that provides a systematic and holistic reference map for any ICT study that considers affect. It includes a taxonomy that classifies affective concepts along five dimensions: the residing, the temporal, the particular/general stimulus, the object/behavior stimulus, and the process/outcome dimensions. ARM also provides a nomological network to indicate the causal or co-occurring relationships among the various types of affective concepts in an ICT interaction episode. ARM has the power for explaining and predicting, as well as prescribing, potential future research directions.
The e-Government phenomenon has become more important with the ever increasing number of implementations worldwide. A model explaining the e-Government adoption and the related measurement instrument – a survey – had been developed and validated in this study. In a post Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) approach, theory of planned behavior (TPB) was extended to fit the requirements of e-Government context. The adoption of student loans service of the higher education student loans and accommodation association of Turkey (KYK) was investigated to obtain data for empirical validation. The instrument was administered to over four-hundred students and partial least squares path modeling was employed to analyze the data. The results indicate that the model was an improvement over TAM in terms of predictive power. The constructs trust, perceived behavioral control and attitudes successfully explained the intention to use an e-Government service. The findings presented in this study provide useful insights for researchers and policy makers when dealing with e-Government services.
E-Government initiatives of varying scope and complexity have been implemented at the municipal and other levels of government throughout the world. These projects have been chronicled in both academic and practitioner journals and the proceedings of various E-Government conferences. As a consequence of this growing body of data, it is now possible to look across the experiences of numerous governments to understand if there are common issues that may impact the probability of success of E-Government programs. This paper examines the literature to search for critical planning and implementation issues that have had significant effects upon the success of E-Government initiatives. A conceptual framework is proposed which contributes to the theoretical understanding of E-Government initiative planning and implementation, and may inform practitioner success with new E-Government initiatives.
The economic crisis, as well as the need to improve patient safety, enhance healthcare services and reduce medical costs made Greek payers to support the implementation and usage of a national electronic prescribing system. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate physicians' attitudes towards e-Prescribing for suggesting improvements. Despite the fact that the physicians were generally satisfied with the e-prescribing system, the benefits of its use were not realized. Moreover, the authors identified key barriers, such as (1) system's unavailability, (2) time to adjust and adapt to e-prescribing, (3) change management issues, (4) lack of training, (5) Information Technology (IT) requirements and (6) medical coding limitations.
This article explores how an alternative multichannel management strategy can improve the way governments and citizens interact. Improvement is necessary because, based on empirical data from various sources, the conclusion can be drawn that there is a gap between the communication channels governments prefer and those that citizens prefer. Governments may be too much guided by rational arguments like the cost efficiency of channels while citizens may choose channels depending on, e.g., task characteristics, personal characteristics or situational factors. In order to close the existing gap and to increase understanding about how different channel types may be positioned in multichannel management, this article proposes an alternative multichannel management strategy that takes both the citizen’s and the government’s perspective into account. This strategy is based on differences in channel types and channel modes via which governments and citizens interact.
This study explores the dynamics of personalized services in online shopping, with regard to emotions, privacy and trust. The basic emotions of happiness and anxiety were chosen. A sample of 182 online shoppers was used to assess the effect of privacy and trust on their emotions through personalized services, and how these emotions ultimately affect their purchase intentions. The findings indicate that privacy affects anxiety while trust affects happiness, while both emotions have significant influence on customers' intention to buy through personalized services. The study concludes with theoretical and prac-tical implications, limitations, and future research directions.
In recent years, many governments have worked to increase openness and transparency in their actions. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are seen by many as a cost-effective and convenient means to promote openness and transparency and to reduce corruption. E-government, in particular, has been used in many prominent, comprehensive transparency efforts in a number of nations. While some of these individual efforts have received considerable attention, the issue of whether these ICT-enabled efforts have the potential to create a substantive social change in attitudes toward transparency has not been widely considered. This paper explores the potential impacts of information and ICTs – especially e-government and social media – on cultural attitudes about transparency.
Government today has benefited from information technology in many ways. The importance of understanding and influencing citizens’ acceptance of e-government services is critical, given the investment in technology and the potential for cost saving. Using the filing of personal income tax in Taiwan as an example of e-government services, this study integrated two important theories (TAM and TPB), and discussed the factors affecting the taxpayers’ intention to adopt a particular tax-filing method (from manual, two-dimensional barcode, or Internet) based on empirical data gathered from a large-scale nationwide survey. The demographic characteristics and perceptions of the taxpayers were also explored in order to identify potential determinants. Results indicated that taxpayers tend to concentrate on the usefulness of a tax-filing method and may be fairly pragmatic in developing general attitudes towards using the method. Interestingly, the effects of perceived ease of use, subjective norms, and self-efficacy on behavioral intention were different for manual and electronic tax-filers. Understanding these factors can extend our knowledge of taxpayers’ decision making and lead to better planning and implementation of e-government services.
New information and communication technologies (ICT) offer the government new possibilities for providing citizens and businesses with better, more efficient services. Criticism about the provision of E-Government services, however, has proposed a more user-oriented approach. The user needs to be placed at the center of the development and the provision of electronic public services. Simultaneously, it is important to investigate the impact of the new services on customers. User satisfaction may indeed have a decisive influence on large-scale adoption and use of E-Government services.
This article describes the development of a comprehensive model for measuring user satisfaction in the context of E-Government. It rethinks the e-strategies of government and subsequently presents a conceptual model derived from ICT acceptance theory. Both quantitative as well as qualitative research have been carried out in order to elaborate the model and to formulate adequate indicators for measuring user satisfaction.
The measurement model has been tested using data from five Flemish E-Government websites. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was applied in order to investigate the goodness of fit of the model and the underlying indicators. Based on the results, it becomes possible to reduce the list of indicators to nine items, still covering the full conceptual model. With this shortlist of satisfaction determinants, E-Government suppliers would be able to get a clear view on acceptance of their Internet services by the users.
With the proliferation of the Internet and World Wide Web applications, people are increasingly interacting with government to citizen (G2C) eGovernment systems. It is therefore important to measure the success of G2C eGovernment systems from the citizen's perspective. While general information systems (IS) success models have received much attention from researchers, few studies have been conducted to assess the success of eGovernment systems. The extent to which traditional IS success models can be extended to investigating eGovernment systems success remains unclear. This study provides the first empirical test of an adaptation of DeLone and McLean's IS success model in the context of G2C eGovernment. The model consists of six dimensions: information quality, system quality, service quality, use, user satisfaction, and perceived net benefit. Structural equation modeling techniques are applied to data collected by questionnaire from 119 users of G2C eGovernment systems in Taiwan. Except for the link from system quality to use, the hypothesized relationships between the six success variables are significantly or marginally supported by the data. The findings provide several important implications for eGovernment research and practice. This paper concludes by discussing limitations of the study which should be addressed in future research.
Citizen confidence in government and technology is imperative to the wide-spread adoption of e-government. This study analyzes the impact of trust and risk perceptions on one’s willingness to use e-government services. We propose a model of e-government trust composed of disposition to trust, trust of the Internet (TOI), trust of the government (TOG) and perceived risk. Results from a citizen survey indicate that disposition to trust positively affects TOI and TOG, which in turn affect intentions to use an e-government service. TOG also affects negatively perceived risk, which affects use intentions as well. Implications for practice and research are discussed.
US Government organizations are creating value for their citizens and businesses by improving their public service delivery through good websites. Our study examined leadership and IT quality, and their effect on positive delivery outcomes in an e-government environment. We first developed a theoretically based model using elements of the model developed for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) and DeLone and McLean's IS Success model. To test this model, we conducted a field survey at a municipal city government. The results supported our hypothesis that the MBNQA leadership triad (leadership, strategic planning, and customer/market focus) had a positive impact on the IT quality triad (information, system, and service quality). We also found that both leadership and IT quality increased the benefits.
Trust (integrity, benevolence, and ability) is the central dimension of e-commerce systems adoption. Based on customer self-service systems and human–computer interaction logics, affective variables are important research issues to fully understand the relationship between information systems development and e-trust. In this paper, the effects of the perceived Web quality with service contents on e-trust, mediated by the website user's affective variables (enjoyment and anxiety), are tested and discussed (n = 325). Flow, social contract, social cognitive, resource allocation, and trust theories are discussed in the paper to support the proposed hypotheses. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are also discussed.
This paper identifies the factors that determine the publics' acceptance of e-Government services. The online tax filing and payment system (OTFPS) is a well-known e-Government service in Taiwan. Using a theoretical model based on the theory of planned behavior, this study aims to (1) identify the determinants for acceptance of the OTFPS; (2) examine the causal relationships among the variables of acceptance behavior for the OTFPS; and (3) explore the relative importance of each determinant for both those who use the OTFPS and those who do not. The article reports on a survey that collected 1,099 usable responses. The results indicate that the proposed model explained up to 72 percent of the variance in behavioral intention. In addition, the important determinants of user acceptance of the OTFPS are perceived usefulness, ease of use, perceived risk, trust, compatibility, external influences, interpersonal influence, self-efficacy, and facilitating condition. Finally, the academic and practical implications of these findings are discussed.
The ultimate question about the success of eGovernment depends on how citizens perceive its value. Understanding success in Information Systems (IS) is however a complex challenge made more difficult when set in the public sector environment. While private sector studies may focus on profitability efficiency, quality and reliability, public sector evaluation must combine these concerns with accountability, citizen trust and the creation of public value. This research adopts the Public Value approach to provide the first empirical assessment of eGovernment success from a citizen perspective. It is also the first study to identify the important IT Quality dimensions that have a positive impact on success. This paper identifies the specific constructs within Information, System and Service Quality that predict citizen value perceptions. This level of granularity provides an important contribution in advancing a deeper understanding of the dynamics of eGovernment success. The novel environment of Web 2.0 in eGovernment is also explored, resulting in new findings that define what citizens' value in this mode of interaction. This research therefore contributes to the body of knowledge by increasing our understanding of what citizens' value in eGovernment services and what aspects of IT Quality influence eGovernment success.
Electronic government is being increasingly recognized as a means for transforming public governance. Despite this increasing interest, information systems (IS) literature is mostly silent on what really contributes to the success of e-government Web sites. To fill this gap, this study examines the role of trust in e-government success using the updated DeLone and McLean IS success model as the theoretical framework. The model is tested via a survey of 214 Singapore e-government Web site users. The results show that trust in government, but not trust in technology, is positively related to trust in e-government Web sites. Further, trust in e-government Web sites is positively related to information quality, system quality, and service quality. The quality constructs have different effects on "intention to continue" using the Web site and "satisfaction" with the Web site. Post hoc analysis indicates that the nature of usage (active versus passive users) may help us better understand the interrelationships among success variables examined in this study. This result suggests that the DeLone and McLean model can be further extended by examining the nature of IS use. In addition, it is important to consider the role of trust as well as various Web site quality attributes in understanding e-government success.
The effects of demographic variables identified in the digital divide literature on usage of e-government services has been discussed. Statistical analyses revealed that for the access divide income, education, and age were significant predictors of intentions to use e-government services. Those which are more likely to use e-government services include younger citizens, citizens with higher levels of income, citizens with higher levels of education, and citizens who use the Internet for other tasks. Government Web sites should be designed with ease of navigation in mind, with both content and interfaces well organized to provide relevant information that is complete and concise. Government services and information if are easily accessible to all groups the entire population will benefit from a more informed citizenry and more accountable government.
Electronic government, or e-government, increases the convenience and accessibility of government services and information to citizens. Despite the benefits of e-government – increased government accountability to citizens, greater public access to information and a more efficient, cost-effective government – the success and acceptance of e-government initiatives, such as online voting and licence renewal, are contingent upon citizens’ willingness to adopt this innovation. In order to develop ‘citizen-centred’ e-government services that provide participants with accessible, relevant information and quality services that are more expedient than traditional ‘brick and mortar’ transactions, government agencies must first understand the factors that influence citizen adoption of this innovation. This study integrates constructs from the Technology Acceptance Model, Diffusions of Innovation theory and web trust models to form a parsimonious yet comprehensive model of factors that influence citizen adoption of e-government initiatives. The study was conducted by surveying a broad diversity of citizens at a community event. The findings indicate that perceived ease of use, compatibility and trustworthiness are significant predictors of citizens’ intention to use an e-government service. Implications of this study for research and practice are presented.
DeLone & McLean (2003) propose an updated information systems (IS) success model and suggest that it can be extended to investigating e-commerce systems success. However, the updated IS success model has not been empirically validated in the context of e-commerce. Further, the existing IS/e-commerce success models have been subject to considerable debate on the ‘IS Use’ and ‘Perceived Usefulness’ constructs, and the nomological structure of the updated DeLone and McLean model is somewhat inconsistent with the IS acceptance and marketing literature. Based on the IS and marketing literature, this paper respecifies and validates a multidimensional model for assessing e-commerce systems success. The validated model consists of six dimensions: Information Quality, System Quality, Service Quality, Perceived Value, User Satisfaction and Intention to Reuse. Structural equation modelling techniques were applied to data collected by questionnaire from 240 users of e-commerce systems in Taiwan. The empirical evidence suggests that Intention to Reuse is affected by Perceived Value and User Satisfaction, which, in turn, are influenced by Information Quality, System Quality and Service Quality. The nomological structure of the respecified e-commerce systems success model is concurred with that of the technology acceptance model (TAM) in the IS field and the consumer behaviour models in the traditional business-to-business and retail contexts. The findings of this study provide several important implications for research and practice. This paper concludes by discussing the contributions of this study and the limitations that could be addressed in future studies.