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Advancement in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has enabled governments worldwide to change modalities of service delivery to citizens. Most governments have adopted the usage of electronic government (e-government) services in delivering of public services. Initially, it was found to be difficult for developing countries to take fully the advantages of e-government services due to high cost required to establish e-government infrastructures. Most citizens in developing countries are living in rural and remote areas and most of these countries are not financially able to deploy required e-government infrastructure in these areas (Aneke, Bakht, & Desta, 2019; Ndou, 2004). Studies have shown that most rural areas in developing countries are characterised by population which cannot afford to buy computers, internet and have low literacy on websites, hence no access to e-government services (Liu et al., 2014). Therefore, vast emerging mobile technologies has complemented e-government services drawbacks (Bwalya, Chris, & Mandla, 2013; Ghyasi & Kushchu, 2004).
Most citizens own mobile phone and therefore governments are using existing private mobile infrastructures to deliver public services. With m-government services, citizens are able to access public services anywhere anytime using simple technologies like SMSs or internet enabled devices (Mengistu, Zo, & Rho, 2009). Similarly, Tanzania has adopted m-government services to make sure citizens are able to access public services despite their locations. Mobile government service is found to be a solution for public services communication because of its ability to bypass e-government service infrastructure barriers (Onyango, Ongus, Awuor, & Nyamboga, 2014).
Adoption of m-government services in Tanzania has attracted a number of researches to examine how m-government services could best benefit citizens, particularly rural area citizens. Most of these studies have concentrated on examining the influence of explanatory variables on adoption, acceptance and continuance of m-government services (Ishengoma, Mselle, & Mongi, 2019; Mandari, 2017; Mandari & Chong, 2020). This is because user acceptance is one of the critical factors in success of m-government services (Almarashdeh & Alsmadi, 2017). Fewer studies have examined the impact of social demographic and awareness as moderating variables in acceptance of m-government services in Tanzania. Thus, less is known of the impact of social demographic variables on adoption of m-government services. Since, studies have shown that, demographic variables have huge impact in acceptance and usage of technology (Gillwald, Ndung’u, Waema, & Mitullah, 2012), then there is a need for further studies to examine the effect of social demographic variables in acceptance of m-government services in Tanzania.
Therefore, this study adapts Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to examine the direct effect of exogenous variables and moderating effect of income on adoption of m-government services in marginalized rural community of Tanzania. Income was selected as moderating variable because studies have shown that financial liquidity has a major significant effect on adoption of innovation (Rogers, 2010). The model has been extended further by adding awareness variable to examine its direct and moderating impact on adoption of m-government services.
This study is relevant in two ways. Firstly, it extends the knowledge of scholars on the moderating effect of income and awareness on TAM when applied on m-government service context. This is because most studies have not examined the impact of moderating variables on the effect of perceived usefulness and perceived easy-of-use of acceptance of technology. Secondly, the study provides useful information to policy makers on how m-government services could best be implemented and deployed to benefit rural citizens.
The remaining sections of this study are organized as follows: Next section is literature review which is followed by research model and hypotheses section. After that, research methodology is presented followed by findings section. Discussion of the findings is then presented followed by implication of the findings. Furthermore, limitation and future research is presented and lastly is conclusion section of this study.