This study empirically examines Web site quality toward the enhancement of the continued use of e-government Web sites by citizens. The web site quality under examination includes three main aspects, which are information quality, system quality, and service quality. The participants were 614 country-wide e-citizens of Thailand. The data were collected by means of a web-based survey and analyzed by using multiple regression analysis. The findings revealed that the three quality aspects enhanced the continued use of e-government Web sites, with system quality providing the greatest enhancement, followed by service quality and information quality.
TopIntroduction
Electronic government, so called e-government, has been broadly defined as the use of information and communication technology (ICT) to transform government by making it more accessible, effective, and accountable (infoDev & CDT, 2002). The Internet is indeed the most powerful and popular means of delivering e-government. Hence, Web sites have been employed as a platform for delivering a wide range of government services electronically.
By using e-government Web sites, citizens can conveniently access government information and services and gain greater opportunities to participate in the democratic process (Fang, 2002). Citizens can access government information and services anywhere and anytime. Thus, the time spent in traveling and waiting is reduced. From the government’s point of view, the more citizens that use e-government Web sites, the more operation and management costs are reduced.
To obtain these benefits, the initial adoption and subsequent continued use of e-government Web sites by citizens are required. In general, an information system indicated that its eventual success depends on its continued use rather than first-time use (Bhattacherjee, 2001; Limayem, Hirt, & Cheung, 2003). Likewise, initial use of e-government Web sites is an important indicator of e-government success. However, it does not necessarily lead to the desired outcome unless a significant number of citizens move beyond the initial adoption and use e-government Web sites on a continual basis. To enhance the continued use, this study proposes that quality of e-government Web sites is one significant factor.
According to DeLone and McLean (2002), the three quality aspects, information quality, system quality, and service quality, are the determinants that effect user’s intention to use an information system. In practice, these three aspects have been employed to study the initial intention to use the information system and to evaluate the quality of information system (e.g., Lee & Kozar, 2006; Negash, Ryan, & Igbaria, 2003; Wilkin & Castleman, 2002). However, there is a lack of prior research that uses information quality, system quality, and service quality to examine the continued use in the context of e-government Web sites.
This study therefore aims to examine the Web site quality toward enhancement of the continued use of e-government Web sites by citizens. The population of interest for this study is e-citizens of Thailand, a group of citizens who has experienced Thailand’s e-government Web sites. The reason that makes Thailand an ideal place to study is that e-government is considered a new innovation to Thai citizens and is conceived as a fundamental element to encourage the country development.
In the next section, the background of this study is briefly reviewed. Thereafter, the research model and hypotheses development, research methodology, and data analysis are presented. Finally, the discussion, limitations, and suggestions for future research are given.