Developing a Conceptual Framework to Evaluate e‐Government Portals ’ Success
Obaid Almalki , Yanqing Duan and Ingo Frommholz University of Bedfordshire , Luton , UK obaid . almalki @ beds . ac . uk yanqing . duan @ beds . ac . uk ingo . frommholz @ beds . ac . uk
Abstract : Many governments around the world have invested heavily into the e‐government systems . They have been making significant efforts to provide information and services online . However , previous research shows that countries are varied in the rate of adoption and success of e‐government systems . Some countries stand in better positions than the others in terms of success that is defined in this research as individual ’ s level of use , satisfaction , and their perceived net benefits . In fact , drawing a clear picture of how and why individuals use e‐government portals is the way to know the factors that lead to their success . A review of the literature shows that much of the research on e‐government in developing courtiers focuses on the issues of the acceptance and the adoption of this emerging technology by individuals . Also , with the limited reported studies on e‐government systems success , most of these studies focus on certain specific issues ( e . g . trust ) rather than looking at further global and contextual factors which will lead to success . It is difficult to make a judgment regarding what findings and results exist in the literature of Information Systems ( IS ) success or its applications that are applicable to fully understand e‐government portal ’ s success . Therefore , this paper proposes a conceptual framework which uses different theories / models for evaluating e‐government portals ' success from individual ’ s point of views . The proposed framework will be tested in a future study in the context of e‐government portals in Saudi Arabia . This framework integrates the updated DeLone and McLean IS success model , Technology Acceptance Model ( TAM ), self‐efficacy theory and perceived risk . Also , culture issues have been taken into consideration by using personal values theory introduced by Schwartz ( Schwartz 1992 ). The framework consists of thirteen constructs including : system quality , information quality , service quality , perceived risk , self‐efficacy , personal values , perceived ease of use , perceived usefulness , attitude towards using , behavior intention to use , use , user satisfaction , and perceived net benefit .
Keywords : e‐government , Saudi Arabia , e‐government evaluation , e‐government portals success , e‐government success factors , e‐government systems success
1 . Introduction
Governments all over the world have invested hugely in the ICT in general and e‐government systems in particular . For example , Canadian government has allocated $ 880 million to invest in the e‐government technologies in more than six years ( 2000‐2005 ) ( Arrivals et al . 2007 ). Another example from the eastern world is the South Korean government . It invested $ 5 billion in ICT within five years , between 1996 and 2001 ( Lee et al . 2005 ). Saudi Arabia as one of the Middle Eastern and developing economic countries has invested about $ 800 million in e‐government ( AMEinfo 2006 ). This big spending on e‐government technologies is , however , offset by the great fear of failure . As a matter of fact , it was found that 35 % of e‐government initiatives were total failures ( i . e . " the initiative was never implemented or was implemented but immediately abandoned "), 50 % were partial failure ( i . e . " major goals for the initiative were not attained and / or there were significant undesirable outcomes "), and only 15 % of e‐government initiatives have been reported successful ( i . e . " most stakeholder groups attained their major goals and did not experience significant undesirable outcomes ") ( Heeks et al . 2003 ).
Therefore , this research paper aims to develop a comprehensive framework for evaluating e‐government success . The study is important to the e‐government research and practice . A review of the literature on IS success and e‐government evaluation reveals that there is very limited research on evaluating e‐government success from both : adoption and impacts from individuals ’ perspectives . This research will respond to this need by developing a comprehensive framework for evaluating e‐government portal success based on major IS success theories , perceived risk theory and values theory .
The proposed framework will be tested in a future study in the context of e‐government portals in Saudi Arabia . As e‐government portal ’ s success is relatively new phenomenon , a multifaceted outcome tends to be highly contextual . Therefore , it is not proper to decide what findings and outcomes reported in the literature are applicable in understanding the e‐government portals ’ success in the context of Saudi e‐government . This proposed future study will be consistent with ( Agourram 2009 ) argument regarding IS success and its
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