Obaid Almalki , Yanqing Duan and Ingo Frommholz
applications ; It will contribute to the literature by conducting specific research that deals with how people in different cultures absorb and operationalize the success of particular e‐government portals .
2 . E‐Government research and relevance issues
The research on e‐government has a relatively short history ( Dwivedi 2009 ). Governments all over the world have started launching their e‐government initiatives since the late 1990s ( Torres et al . 2005 ; Meijer et al . 2009 ), which aim at delivering their information and services in electronic forms to their citizens , residents , and businesses ( Torres et al . 2005 ). e‐Government , like any other applications of IS , has been researched since it has emerged . However , its short research history brings up a lot of crucial issues such as e‐government success has not been well investigated and needs to be discussed from various angles to understand it .
Analyzing the most cited articles published since 2008 to date in the Government Information Quarterly Journal reveals that what e‐government research themes have attracted researchers nowadays . The most cited paper in the list was about assessing the e‐government success . This study was conducted by Wang and Liao ( 2008 ). The authors of this study argue that it was the first study in the context of e‐government systems that empirically tested and validated the updated IS success model of DeLone and McLean ( 2003 ). The motivation for this study was to test to what extent the traditional IS success theories / models can fit in the e‐ government context . The main finding was that , the constructs of DeLone and McLean ( 2003 ) are valid measures for e‐government systems success .
When considering e‐government evaluation research , in 2005 , a study that has been conducted by Griffin and Halpin ( 2005 ) gives a glance at the specific themes of e‐government evaluation : evaluation of the stages of e‐ government growth , evaluation of the delivery of electronic services via the internet , evaluation of the involvement of e‐government stakeholders , and the evaluation of the costs and benefits of e‐government . In addition , looking at the recent leading issues in e‐government research ( Worrall 2011 ), reveals that : to some extend the evaluation of e‐government in general is still one of the leading issues under investigation by researchers .
Generally , studies on e‐government have focused on a variety of issues , such as its adoption and acceptance ( Shareef et al . 2011 ; Ozkan and Kanat 2011 ; Arrivals et al . 2007 ; Srivastava and Teo 2009 ; Tung and Rieck 2005 ), its evaluation ( Barnes and Vidgen 2006 ; Papadomichelaki and Mentzas 2012 ; Karunasena and Deng 2012 ; Irani et al . 2005 ) and success ( Wang and Liao 2008 ; Floropoulos et al . 2010 ; Gil‐García and Pardo 2005 ). The aforementioned studies within their classified groups look at the e‐government from different angles . For instance , the trust of e‐government has been investigated from different perspectives ( e . g . trust about governments and trust about e‐government technology in use ). Another important theme of e‐government research is the impact of e‐government systems on individuals ( Irani et al . 2012 ; Chan et al . 2010 ).
3 . Theoretical background and research model
The proposed framework of this research integrates TAM , the updated IS success model , self efficacy theory , perceived risk theory and value theory . This was based on what the literature revealed as well as what has been confirmed and suggested in the exploratory study conducted by Almalki et al . ( 2012 ) as part of this PhD research . The proposed framework was used to inform the establishment of a research hypothesis . The following sections present each of these theories / models and highlight strengths and limitations in the context of the discussion .
3.1 The updated DeLone and McLean IS success model
In this research , the framework utilised by DeLone and Mclean ( 2003 ) IS success model with six dimensions portrayed in Figure 1 . In fact , DeLone and MacLean ’ s original model was proposed in 1992 based on their indepth insight and comprehensive review of IS success literature ( Wu and Wang 2006 ; DeLone and McLean 2003 ). DeLone and MacLean ’ s ( 1992 ) original model was a crucial milestone in research measuring IS success since it was introduced based on the critical analysis of 180 research articles relevant to the field ( Hu et al . 2005 ). Also , it has been validated , tested and cited by many researchers .
According to DeLone and McLean ( 1992 ): “ in searching for IS success measures , rather than finding none , there are nearly as many measures as there are studies ”. Sedera and Gable ( 2004 ) cited in ( Petter et al . 2008 ), tested different success models including the DeLone and McLean and Seddon models , finding that the
20