3.3 Self‐efficacy theory
Obaid Almalki , Yanqing Duan and Ingo Frommholz
Bandura ( 1986 ) defined self‐efficacy as : “ People ’ s judgements of their capabilities to organise and execute courses of actions required to attain designated types of performances . It is concerned not with the skills one has but with judgments of what one can do with whatever skills one possesses ”. The term ‘ self‐efficacy ’ originated from psychology . In the context of computing , computer self‐efficacy is defined as : “ a judgement of one ’ s capability to use a computer ” ( Compeau and Higgins 1995 ). Self‐efficacy has become commonly used by researchers in the field of IT to understand individual behaviours towards IT ( e . g . ( Kim et al . 2010 ; Reid 2009 ; Li et al . 2012 )). Thus , it has been decided to include it in the theoretical framework of this research and it has been emphasised by some of the interviewees in the conducted exploratory study by Almalki et al . ( 2012 ). Furthermore , it is based on a call by ( Bandura 1986 ; Compeau and Higgins 1995 ) to tailor the measurements of self‐efficacy to the specific domain which is undergoing testing to increase prediction accuracy . This study considered computer‐self efficacy and adapted the measures proposed by Compeau and Higgins ( 1995 ) with some modifications to make it applicable to the context of e‐government .
3.4 Perceived risk
Featherman and Pavlou ( 2003 ) argued that past research on technology adoption has primarily focused on the positive utility gains which can be attributed to technology adoption . Perceived risk is considered as negative utility or potential losses that can be attributed to e‐services adoption ( Featherman and Pavlou 2003 ). They call it " Perceived Risk Theory " in their study , integrate it with TAM , and empirically test it which results in a proposed model for e‐services adoption . It is interpreted as to feel uncertain regarding potential negative consequences / results of utilizing a service or a product ( Featherman and Pavlou 2003 ). It is defined in the marketing discipline as " the expectation of losses associated with purchase and acts as inhibitor to purchase behaviour " ( Peter and Ryan 1976 ).
In the world of online services ( e . g . e‐commerce ), consumers have demonstrated reluctance to accomplish purchase in the form of simple on‐line transaction ( Hoffman et al . 1999 ). The reason which makes them reluctance to interact with online services is : " consumers simply do not trust most Web providers enough to engage in relationship exchange involving money and personal information with them " ( Hoffman et al . 1999 ). According to Lee ( 2009 ), modelling perceived risk as a singular variable construct in previous research of e‐ banking lead to fail in reflecting the real characteristics of perceived risk and tell why users resist to use online services . In this research , the perceived risk is first modelled as a single variable within the proposed framework , and then will be decomposed into its multi‐facets . This is in line with Featherman and Pavlou ( 2003 ) and Lee ( 2009 ). To deeply understand the role of perceived risk in e‐government portals ' success , this study carried out a more in‐depth research of what are the sub‐facets of perceived risk . Thus , perceived risk has been divided to six categories : performance risk , financial risk , social risk , time risk as theorized by Featherman and Pavlou ( 2003 ), security , and privacy as theorized by Featherman and Pavlou ( 2003 ) and Fu et al .( 2006 ).
3.5 Personal values
Values were defined by Rokeach ( 1973 ) and Schwartz ( 1992 ) as cognitive representations of desirable and abstract goals . Personal values can influence the behaviour of individuals in various aspects of life . The ten basic values identified by Schwartz ( 1992 ) have the strength of including all the core values that are widely recognized in various cultures in the world ( Schwartz 2009 ). Table 1 lists the ten value types taken from ( Schwartz 2009 ).
Schwartz ( 1992 ) justifies the identification and classification of human values in their study , " identification of a universal structure would permit the derivation of basic value dimensions that could be used for the purpose of comparisons ". This will help future researchers who include personal values in their frameworks / models to know what values are most related to their phenomenon and what values have no impacts . Rokeach ( 1973 ) states the importance of personal values inclusion in all sciences and when it is vital to study the human behaviours : " The value concept , more than any other , should occupy a central position ... able to unify the apparently diverse interests of all the sciences concerned with human behaviours ". Schwartz ( 1992 ) commented on these words and stated that these words proclaim the centrality of personal values .
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