Citizen Readiness to Use E-Government Services - Research Proposal Example

Citizen Readiness to Use E Government Services By A Research Proposal Introduction As a direct result of advances in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) through the internet, citizens have developed a whole new set of expectations regarding the methods and processes used in interacting with their respective governments. Following in the footsteps of the revolution in consumer purchasing that E-commerce established, e government (electronic government) has been stated by studies such as those by Dodd (2000) as the new wave of the future in public sector interaction between citizens and government offices for the next generation. E government can be described as the implementation of digital processes and technologies in order to increase efficiency, reliability and coverage of internal and external government services and information sharing to citizens while at the same time implementing a concept known as "lean governance" wherein wasteful spending, processes and methods of operation are in effect eliminated as a direct result of utilizing e government procedures and systems (Lam, 2005). It is based on these perceived benefits that a large number of developed and developing countries around the world have begun to allocate resources towards e government programs and initiatives (Tassabehji, 2005). Benefits of a Government’s Online Strategy In “Defining E-government: A Citizen-Centric Criteria Based Approach”, Misra talks of the benefits of e government as occurring in three fronts: benefits to citizens, to businesses and to the government (p. 5, 2007). According to Misra, there are several ways in which consumers or citizens in general benefit from e governments. E governments facilitate round the clock service, are economical since physical visits to the government offices are not necessary, are efficient and fast since the transactions are electronic, are convenient in that one can access the website wherever they are and are equitable since anyone can access the site (p.5, 2007). A study indicated that citizens of Australia are usually busy and often lack time. The private sector has already taken notice of this fact and have gone ahead to implement online services as a way of saving their client’s effort and time in accessing information and carrying out transactions (“E-government Benefits Study”). The citizens of Australia can now also enjoy such services from their government. In terms of social benefits, the government of Australia is now able to deliver services efficiently to its citizens. The government website offers routine inquires while the other staff within the government agencies is left to deal with complex issues (E-government Benefits Study). The public is also able to access government services regardless of the time or day. In addition to this, the public has also been allowed to access information at their own discretion. This ensures that they are able to get accurate information in timely manner, thus, allowing them to make better decisions. Through the website, the government has been able to penetrate and spread information to many citizens within Australia. With the broadband infrastructure in place, communities within the remote and rural areas have also been able to access information and government services (“E-government Benefits Study”). E government services are also of great benefit to businesses. For instance, setting up a new business is faster than before, businesses can now transact their operations online, there is transparency and convenience through e procurement and businesses can now conduct online transactions (Misra, p. 5, 2007). The government is also a beneficiary of e government website. Through e government, the government can come up with better policies and regulations since they are able to work with updated information, government officials can come up with better decisions since they are able to acquire, store and retrieve data in a fast manner and the government is also seen to be progressive and modern in the eyes of investors or its citizens (Misra, p. 5, 2007). According to an Australian study, most of the government’s online programs, through lowering delivery costs, improvement of processes, both external and internal, and direct savings, led to reduction in costs (“E-government Benefits Study”). Such agencies were able to make use of communication cheap channels to communicate with the citizens and other agencies. Efficiency in resource sharing has also been achieved through this strategy. The different agencies within the government have been able to communicate and exchange information electronically and with ease. This has ensured that there is reduction in expenses associated with paper based communication systems (“E-government Benefits Study”). 2. Research problem In the article "From e government to Connected Governance" a survey conducted by the United Nations in 2010 showed that 189 out of 192 member states were actually pushing through with a significant amount of e government initiatives. While there are doubtlessly many merits to utilizing online systems and digitized functions it must be questioned whether there are drawbacks to the implementation of e government and whether it can truly result in a better functioning government. For example, within the European Union which has one of the highest rates of internet usage within the world with 71.5% of its population utilizing the internet on a daily basis, it was discovered by the European Commission that only 28% of online internet users within the E.U. actively access information on public officials online (Website 1). Prior to the creation of the survey by the European Commission it was discovered that only 13% of E.U. citizens actively interacted with e government services within the past 3 months which is indicative of an incredibly low usage rate despite the amount of services and capacity the E.U. based e government system has at the present (Website 2). This is not a trend that has been isolated within the E.U. alone but is actually evident in most governments around the world that have implemented e government systems. It is based on the apparently low usage rate of e government platforms and services that the functionality and practicality of the concept of e government must be questioned given the fact that so much has been spent on it with so few people actually using it. According to a research conducted by Sharma and Pant (2009), IT usage in the state of Uttarakhand is significantly low. Awareness of computers and IT related facilities was high among the urban dwellers as opposed to the rural dwellers. However, usage of computers among the urban dwellers is limited to word processing only. Few of those in the rural areas are aware of the government website or its online services. The study also indicated that none of them makes use of these services (Sharma & Pant, 2009). This analysis into the citizens of Uttarakhand reveals that there is extremely low usage of IT services and computers in general. According to the findings of the survey, usage of e government is low. A high number of respondents revealed that they had not used the e government website to access its services. Very few of them had made use of the Indian railway website or the Uttara Portal (Sharma & Pant, 2009). In the same survey, student respondents from various institutions revealed that they either had access to computers or had computers. The findings revealed that usage of computers and the internet among this group was considerably high (Sharma & Pant, 2009). However, despite the high internet usage among the students, there is still low usage of online government services. Usage of the internet has been limited to emails, surfing google or orkut. This group, however, has made use of the university’s website while checking for their results. A significantly low number of students do not use any IT facilities or services (Sharma & Pant, 2009). This survey went ahead to analyze data collected from employees from both the private sector and the government (Sharma & Pant, 2009). This survey depicted that some employees made use of the internet in their daily operations which included browsing, emailing, paying bills, carrying out bank transactions, etc. However, very few of these respondents had used e government services such as income tax filling. Usage of e government services is revealed to be significantly low among this group (Sharma & Pant, 2009). Finally, the survey collected data from the business class group in an effort to identify the usage rate of IT facilities within the state (Sharma & Pant, 2009). An analysis into this group shows that most of these respondents had not used online services of booking railway tickets and had instead opted for the manual system. Very few of them had used the government website to access government services (Sharma & Pant, 2009). Studies into the state of Uttarakhand are a clear indication of the low usage rate of IT infrastructure that has been put in place. Awareness among the various groups within the study is revealed to be very low. This study shows that low awareness is directly proportionate to the low usage of IT infrastructure. The study illustrates the usage levels of IT facilities among various groups in this way it reveals the low awareness within the state of Uttarakhand. In conclusion, it offers recommendations on how to change the current trend. On the other hand, most of the citizen centric e government studies that have been conducted focused on the subsequent adoption and acceptance of digital/internet based platforms and services. Such studies have tried to predict users’ reception of technology by measuring how they rate statements on a questionnaire. Table 1 shows a random selection of the citizen centric e government literatures, it illustrates how adoption and acceptance dominate the topic. Author Model Al-adawi et al (2005) Extended technology acceptance model Alsaghier et al (2009) Extended technology acceptance model Rokhman (2011) Diffusion of Innovation Kumar et al (2007) Extended technology acceptance model Susanto and Goodwin(2010) Technology Acceptance Model and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology Chan et al (2010) Extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology Dimitrova and Chen (2006) Diffusion of Innovation and technology acceptance model Lai and Pires (2010) technology acceptance model and end user satisfaction theories Carter and Belanger (2004) Diffusion of Innovation Mahadeo(2009) Diffusion of Innovation Wangpipatwong et al(2008) Extended technology acceptance model Mofleh and Wanous(2008) technology acceptance model and Diffusion of Innovation Chee-Wee et al (2010) Service Quality Model Suki and Ramayah (2010) Extended technology acceptance model Table (1): A random selection of the citizen centric e government literatures It must be noted, though, that recent criticisms have started to emerge about the perceived constraints in adoption and acceptance studies and the research approach they utilized in general. For instance, Lee, Kozar and Larsen (2003) point out that many studies base their measurements on the user’s self-reported numbers of use and short usage with the technology in question, and as such represents a distinct lack of sufficient breadth and depth in terms of sufficient data observing other facets regarding the use of the technology. Another issue mentioned by Benbasat and Barki (2007) is the inherent lack of longitudinal studies which take into account multiple measurement points (Benbasat & Barki, 2007). In addition, Acceptance models have been criticized for the insensitivity to different use contexts. The models do not take into account the fact that a technology may be initially accepted in the beginning but later abandoned, or vice versa (Salovaara & Tamminen 2009). Another aspect that has been criticized has been directed at the nature of the technology acceptance models, and how the different models have been improved over the years. There have been numerous suggestions raised to extend the models backwards through the roots features of technology depending on which users assess the usefulness and ease of use of the technology itself (Benbasat & Barki, 2007). Moreover, all adoption models do not take into account the readiness of citizens as an important base to adopt the government web services. They are focusing on how citizens utilize the web service and measure their perception about such services (Salovaara & Tamminen 2009). With these inherent limitations seen in acceptance and adoption models, the governments web designers and practitioners are far away from understanding the citizens attitude and needs for government web services, and as such they need to build a strong and tangible model made especially for government web services infusion, and to understand the manner in which citizens perceive the use of e government services while they design governments web services. Another aspect that has been of great interest in the implementation of e government is e readiness. This refers to the capacity, both individual and collective, to benefit from and participate in the digital globalization of the economy. In this research, we will focus on the conditions that have been established before the implementation of e government. Therefore, it also refers to the level of commitment of a community to engage in and interact with the government through a network. There has been a lot of literature that focuses on e readiness. However, most of the available literature focuses on the readiness of either the government or the citizen. For instance, the Economist Intelligence Unit defines e readiness as “the measure of a country’s ability to leverage digital channels for communication, commerce and government in order to further economic and social development”. According to this definition, e readiness refers to the conditions that have been set by the government to ensure that e government implementation is successful. Such conditions may include setting up the available infrastructure, presenting the data to the public and so on. Hence, it would be correct to say, in such an instance, that a country is ready but its citizens are not. This definition does not, however, look into the citizen’s readiness and particularly the readiness of an individual. According to Osorio and Sachs (2002), e readiness refers to “the degree to which a community is prepared and has the potential to participate in the networked world”. There have been numerous assessment measures and models of e readiness that have been developed over the years. According to a comparison carried out by Bridges.org (2001), it was discovered that each of the models had their own definition of e readiness. At the Harvard University, the Center for International Development defines an e ready society as: “…one that has the necessary physical infrastructure (high bandwidth, reliability, and affordable prices), has integrated current ICTs throughout businesses (ecommerce, local ICT sector), communities (local content, organizations online, ICTs used in everyday life, ICTs taught in schools), and the government (e-government).” E readiness has also been defined as “the aptitude of an economy to use information and communications technologies to migrate traditional businesses into the new economy” (Bui et al., 2003). The Asia-Pacific Development Information Programme defines e readiness as “degree to which a society is prepared to participate in the digital economy with the underlying concept that the digital economy can help to build a better society” (APDIP, 2002). The literatures presented above are a clear indication that the focus of literature on e readiness has been one sided. This is primarily because the individual or the end user is not considered as part of being ready for e governance. The present literature only focuses on the ability of the government to provide the necessary infrastructure to implement e governance. The numerous assessment tools and models that have been developed over the years have been focused on assessing an economy’s or a country’s e readiness factor. It has been argued, in the academic circles, that the present models focus on extrinsic factors that make up an individual’s environment. Such models bear an indirect impact on an individual’s level of e readiness. An assessment model developed by APEC economies (2000) has been used by different economies and communities to measure their level of e readiness. The indicators used in this model are as follows: Essential technology and infrastructure – this refers to the ease of access to the necessary facilities, the speed, price and reliability of the infrastructure and market conditions. Facilitation and promotion facilities The present use and level of internet Human resources and skills Access to the required services such as internet services, etc. The model developed by APEC economies (2000), highlights human resources and skills as one of the indicators used to measure e readiness. Intrinsic factors have been identified as those factors that influence an individual while making decisions. Extrinsic factors have been identified to have some bearing on the intrinsic factors. The intrinsic factors, on the other hand, have been identified to have a direct bearing on the level of e readiness of an individual. Knowledge of the theory of planned Behavior (Azjen, 1991) and theory of reasoned action (Fishbein & Azjen, 1973) are best used to study an individual’s level of e readiness. Ratnananthan (2011) explores these two theories in his dissertation on e readiness. According to him, the adoption of these theories has ensured that researchers and theorists within the Information Systems field are able to grasp an individual’s psychological impact on adoption of information systems (Ratnananthan, 2011). He has also identified motivation as one of the factors affecting an individual’s level of e readiness. He explores various motivation based theories to illustrate this as a factor influencing an individual’s level of e readiness. This dissertation represents one of the few literatures that presently exist addressing the e readiness on an individual level. 3. Research objective According to the research problem the research objective will focus on exploring citizen readiness factors and their impact on the usage rate of e government web services, in order to give better understanding of citizen readiness in e government context to practitioners and researchers. 4. Research questions: a) What are the aggregated factors that guarantee citizen readiness in e government web services? b) Does citizen readiness influence the usage rate of e government web services? c) What are some of the limitations that influence the level of e readiness of the citizen in regard to e governance? References Ajzen, i 1991, “The Theory of Planned Behavior, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes”, vol.50. p. 179-211. Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) 2000, “E-Commerce Readiness Guide, Electronic Commerce Steering Group”, (APEC), available at www.ecommerce.gov/apec. Benbasat I & Barki H 2007, “Quo vadis, TAM?”, Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 8, pp 211–218. Bridges.org 2001, Comparison of E-Readiness Assessment Models. Retrieved: Bui, XT, Sankaran, S & Sebastian, MI 2003, “A framework for measuring national e-readiness”, Internaltional Journal of Electronic Business, vol.1, no1, p.3 – 22. Date of access 15 March 2012. Dodd, J 2000, “Delivering on the E government Promise”, A Government Technology Industry Profile: NIC. Date of access 15 March 2012. Economist Intelligence Unit 2002, E-Readiness Rankings. Retrieved from http://www.ebusinessforum.com/index.asp?doc_id=5768. E-government Benefits Study. [Canberra]: NOIE, 2003. Print. Fishbein, M & Ajzen, I 1975, “Belief, attitude, intention, and behaviour: An introduction to theory and research”, Reading, Mass. July 7, 2012, from http://www.bridges.org/ereadiness/report.html. Kirkman et al. (eds), The Global Information Technology Report 2001-2002: Kirkman, GS, Osorio, CA & Sachs, JD 2002, ‘The Networked Readiness Index: Lam, W 2005, “Barriers to E government Integration”, Journal of Enterprise Information Management, vol. 18, no. 5. pp 511-530. Lee, Y, Kozar, K A & Larsen, K R T 2003, “The technology acceptance model: Past, present, and future”, Communications of the Association for Information Systems, vol. 12. pp 752–780. Measuring the Preparedness of Nations for the Networked World’, in G.S. Ratnananthan, Aroodguhan 2011, "E-Readiness Of Consumers For E-Commerce Adoption: A Case Study In Sri Lanka." Diss. The University Of Sheffield. Readiness for the Networked World, Oxford University Press, New York. Salovaara, A & S Tamminen 2009, “Acceptance or Appropriation? A Design-Oriented Critique of Technology Acceptance Models” in Saariluoma P. and H. Isomäki (eds.) Future interaction design II, London: Springer, pp. 157–173. Tassabehji, R 2005, “Inclusion in E-Government: A Security Perspective”, E government Workshop 05 (eGOV05), Brunel University, UK. Website 1: http://www.internetworldstats.com/europa.htm Website 2: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php/E-government_statistics, Date of access 15 March 2012. Misra, D C 2007, Defining E-government: A Citizen-centric Criteria-based Approach. Retrieved from: http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/apcity/unpan026250.pdf Read More