Mohammed Alsaif
foreign experts employed to introduce this technology, and so this reliance on external expertise results in a gap in practice( Ali et al., 2009).
The review of literature of technology adoption and culture values suggests that low levels of adoption of e‐ Government in developing countries should not be blamed on the culture or individual citizens, but that new technology needs to be adapted to suit the culture of Arab societies to achieve high diffusion of technology.
This study aims to consider the problems associated with the low response of citizens to the adoption of e‐ Government in developing Arab countries, with a predominant focus on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. As the adoption consider as an efficient method to evaluate the success of the implementation. It is necessary for this new innovation to be tailored to citizens’ wishes, and taking into account the religious, cultural, traditional and other beliefs to ensure the widespread adoption of this innovation. This research will enhance understanding of how technology can assist the adoption of e‐Government, by examining citizens’ characteristics and sociocultural aspects, which influence the adoption decision.
2. Literature review
The process of the adoption of e‐Government is defined by Warkentin et al.( 2002) as the intention of citizens to engage with government, to ask for services or to find information. However, unless the needs and expectations of citizens are effectively targeted towards encouraging them to use government websites, this engagement is unlikely to be successful.
The previous works in e‐Government adoption have utilized various theories and individual factors affect the citizen ' s adoption of e‐Government in different countries. The literature emerges various factors influence the adoption of e‐Government depend on the local context of single country or deployed among single system such as taxpaying or other government electronic services. Based on Rogers’( 1995) Diffusion of Innovations Theory( DOI); Carter and Belanger( 2004) studied student’ s adoption of e‐Government and trust issues in the USA and emerge relative advantages, compatibility, image and trustworthiness significantly affect the user ' s intention to use e‐Government services. In another study, Carter and Belanger( 2005) combined the Technology Acceptance Model( TAM), Web Trust Model and( DOI) to develop a comprehensive model that contains relevant factors affecting citizen ' s adoption of e‐Government and revealed that compatibility, relative advantage and perceived usefulness are significant indicators of user ' s intention to use e‐Government services provided by the state. Furthermore, based on Davis’( 1989)( TAM); Dimitrova and Chen( 2006) examined sociopsychological factors affect e‐Government adoption and identified Perceived Uncertainty and Civic Mindedness as salient factors. Moreover, utilizing Ajzen’ s( 1991) Theory of Planned Behavior( TPB) and( TAM); Horst et al.( 2007) examined Perceived usefulness, personal experiences, risk perception and trust as the main determinants of adoption of e‐Government services in The Netherlands. Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology( UTAUT) was utilised among university students developing country, Kuwait, and Qatar which are ones of the GCC countries( AlAwadhi and Morris, 2008; Al‐Shafi and Weerakkody 2009) to examine the citizens’ adoption of e‐Government. Both studies findings concluded that performance and effort expectancy, together with social influence have a significant impact among the decision of citizens to adopt e‐Government. The previous literature concerning the adoption of E‐Government from citizens prospective mainly utilised TAM and DOI models to identify the catalyst factors. The prior researches suggested that the core variables of the TAM were significant predictors of the adoption as well as compatibility variables in DOI and social influence in the TPB and UTAUT.
However, the review of literature reveals insufficient findings relating to cultural factors influencing the adoption of e‐Government, although two studies compared two different cultures, and revealed the potential influence of cultural differences between the UK and Sri Lanka( Ali et al., 2009) and between the USA and the UK( Carter and Weerakkody, 2008). In a study of European countries, cross‐cultural adoption of e‐Government was evaluated by Arslan( 2009. Another study by Zhao( 2011) undertook a comparison of Hofstede’ s five cultural dimensions across the world with e‐Government development. However, these studies gives little attention to the influence of Arab culture upon citizen ' s adoption of e‐Government by emphasis on single socio‐culture case, and this current research will attempt to fill this gap in the literature by studying how the culture of Saudi Arabia could affect the adoption of e‐Government in the country, and to propose a comprehensive model that would take account of relevant socio‐cultural constructs.
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