Predictors of the Readiness to Use E-Government Services From Citizens' Perspective

Introduction

E-government is the application of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) by government through its public and state institutions administration system for the purposes of ensuring an enhanced interaction with citizens and provision of an improved, effective and efficient public service delivery to meet the expectations of the citizens. The provision of government public services to citizens has changed drastically with the integration of Information and Communication Technologies (Colesca & Dobrica, 2008). The World Bank defined e-government as the use by government agencies of Information Technologies like the Wide Area Networks, the Internet, and Mobile Computing, that have the capacity to transform relations with citizens, businesses and other arms of government (World Bank, 2015). According to the World Bank, these technologies can ensure better delivery of government services to citizens, improved interactions with businesses and industry as well as to empower citizens through the access to information. This results in less corruption, increased transparency, greater interaction and reduction in the cost of accessing public services (World Bank, 2015). E-government improves the efficiency, effectiveness, transparency, and responsibility of public and state institutions (Kraemer & King, 2006). The United Nations have also considered e-government as the utilization of the Internet and the World-Wide-Web for delivering government information and services to citizens. Zhao, José Scavarda, and Waxin (2012) considered e-government as the most effective and efficient way by which the government can interact with the citizenry. It has also been indicated that automation and simplification of the interaction between government agencies and private sector businesses through an e-government platform can contribute to reducing the collusion and corruption practices in the public procurement processes (Kochanova, Hasnain, & Larson, 2017). E-filling and e-procurement portals which are crucial automation as a result of e-government can ensure streamlining of tax filing for both businesses and individual citizens, enforce tax compliance and provide a competitive environment for public procurement to flourish (Kochanova et al., 2017). It has been emphasized that e-government initiatives have a positive effect on government efforts to control the menace of corruption (Lee, 2017; Sheryazdanova & Butterfield, 2017). Furthermore, e-government provides advantages to the citizenry which includes transparency in the process of governance, cost and time savings through efficient service and the simplification of procedures for accessing public services (Laudon, 2009).

The major beneficiary of e-government initiatives are citizens who are considered the end users of e-government services and therefore studies which seek to explore the understanding, as well as factors affecting citizens' adoption of e-government services, are necessary and important. The success of e-government initiatives does not only depend on the e-government service providers but also citizens who are the end-users and so understanding key determinants determining the use of e-government services are vital (Sharma, 2015). Similarly, Ovais Ahmad, Markkula, and Oivo (2013) stated that the knowledge and understanding of the factors affecting e-government service adoption from the user's point of view are important questions for developing countries. According to Wallstrom et al., (2009), the lack of understanding with regard to the factors accounting for citizens adoption of e-government services could explain why the use of e-government services is low among citizens and why the expected success from e-government initiatives have not been accomplished.