International Journal of Scientific Research

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1 International Journal of Scientific Research Vol. II, Issue 2, 2017 EVALUATING E-GOVERNMENT SUCCESS FACTORS AND ITS IMPACT ON USERS SATISFACTION IN SAUDI ARABIA A Shaymaa Mousa, B Hadih Aubid Al-Rashidi A Assistant Professor, Faculty of Economics and Administration, King Abdulaziz University, smmousa@kau.edu.sa B MBA student, Faculty of Economics and Administration, King Abdulaziz University, hadyyhaubid@yahoo.com Abstract Governments around the world realise the value of e-government. The successful design and implementation of e-government can improve the efficiency of governments in delivering the services needed. In Saudi Arabia, there are problems with using the e- government services that decision makers want to implement because these services are not used by individuals when required. This study assumes that paying attention to user satisfaction can help to solve this problem. The basic goal of this research project is to identify the factors that influence satisfaction with, and ultimately the adoption of, e- government initiatives by individual citizens and residents in Saudi Arabia. To achieve this goal, the study uses a model that is built upon those utilized in previous studies. The model focuses on four basic factors affecting user satisfaction: information quality (IQ), system quality (SQ), perceived effectiveness (PE) and social influence (SI). In the study, the model has been applied to e-government systems directed at citizens and residents (G2C systems). The main tool used to collect data was a questionnaire. The data was gathered from a sample of 233 users of e-government services. The research findings also support the hypothesis that information quality, system quality, perceived effectiveness and social influence have a positive effect on the satisfaction of e- government service users. Key words: e-government portal, adoption, user satisfaction, electronic government (egovernment), IS success. I. INTRODUCTION E-government has an important potential role in making public administration more efficient by increasing the accessibility of government information and services to citizens and residents. It can bring about good results for governments that employ this approach, and can achieve significant improvements in government institutions. However, an important question that must be taken into consideration is: can e-government achieve the goals it aims for? To answer this question, governments must take into consideration an understanding of target users' needs, perceptions, and other factors that influence the Licensed under Creative Common Page 1

2 adoption of online services (Lai and Pires, 2010). Especially with the diffusion of internet services, and applications available on the World Wide Web, and people started interacting with websites specific for citizens of a specific government. This is an example of e-government systems directed to citizens (G2C). Therefore, it is important to measure the success of e-government services from the perspective of citizens (Wang & Liao, 2008). Also, another reason to measure and examine the success of e-government initiatives is the investment that has been made. User satisfaction is the essential measure of e- government initiatives and their outcomes(rahim & Alharbi, 2014).Thus the goal of this research project is to identify the factors influencing satisfaction with e-government services and adoption by citizens and residents in Saudi Arabia. To achieve this goal, this study administered a questionnaire to government and private sector employees in two cities in Saudi Arabia. The model underlying the study is based on previous studies, including the four key factors of information quality, system quality, perceived effectiveness and social influence. These factors are found to have an important impact on user satisfaction with the e-government portal. Hung, Chang, and Yu (2006) sought to identify factors that affect the public s acceptance of e-government services. They carried out a case study on an online tax filing and payment system (OTFPS) for citizens of Taiwan.The model employed in their study was based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB).Theyused their model to examine two groups: adopters and non-adopters of e-government system. They noted the following results: perceived usefulness, trust, and compatibility significantly affect attitudes toward the system in both group (adopters and non-adopters). Also, personal innovativeness did not significantly affect attitude in either group. In addition, other factors that significantly influenced attitudes toward e-government services, in the adopter group, include perceived ease of use and reduced perceived risk, but these are not significant for nonadopters. Interpersonal influence was a significant determinant for both adopters and non-adopters, but external influences were significant as a factor for adopters but not for non-adopters. On the other hand, technological self- efficacy was a significant determinant for both groups.the researchers found that if perceived behavioral control increases this will increase use of e-government services significantly among adopters but not among non-adopters. Horan and Abhichandani (2006) aims to develop a model of citizen satisfaction with e- government services. This model was applied to online Advanced Transportation Information Systems (ATIS) providing services to citizens. The main result of the research was that utility, efficiency, and customization were the most significant factors that influenced satisfaction with the e-government system. Wangand Liao (2008)worked on develop and validate a multidimensional G2C e- government systems success model based on the revised DeLone and McLean (2003) model of IS success. This approach was applied in Taiwan with respect to G2C systems. The main results that researchers have noted are, first, that information quality has a significant influence on both rates of use and user satisfaction. Second, the relationships between service quality and adoption or user satisfaction in a G2C e-government context Licensed under Creative Common Page 2

3 were not significant (were marginally supported), while system quality has a significant impact on user satisfaction but not on rates of use. Third, information quality has a stronger effect than system quality and service quality on use and user satisfaction. Fourth, they revealed use have significant influence on the user satisfaction and perceived net benefit. Finally, user satisfaction is a significant determinant of net benefit as perceived by users. Also they found use has a more significant relationship to perceived net benefit than user satisfaction. Almarabeh and AbuAli (2010)aims to introduce a general framework for e-government. These researchers discussed many previous studies to help them to solve 3 main questions: What, why and how e-government? They summarized their answer to those three questions by exploring different definitions of e-government, discussing the maturity of e-government, addressing the challenges and opportunities involved in developing a successful e-government initiative, and explaining the important role of e-government in any adopting country. Finally, they referred to developments in ICT and the role of these technologies in changing traditional government approaches towards the e-government services we see today. Delitheou and Maraki (2010)sought to examine citizens attitudes toward electronic municipal services (e-local government), and to identify the basic factors that affect these attitudes.to achieve this, the researchers administered questionnaires to a random sample of 300 people. Their survey was carried out in Athens, Greece, examining electronic services provided by municipal authorities. Among the results of this study, 94% of those questioned were aware of electronic government services provided by their local government. Of these, 77% used electronic services that provided by their municipality. A majority of those questioned on the utility use electronic services provided by municipalities believed that they were useful. Among the reasons for using the Municipality of Athens website, avoiding bureaucracy was mentioned 32% of the time by respondents, reducing traveling was second most frequently cited at 21%, while other causes mentioned less frequently included: providing better service compared to traditional means, and saving money and time. On the other hand, among the problems mentioned by users of the Municipality of Athens website were difficult navigation, dissatisfaction with service times, and many other problems. Among other important results, researchers found a link between total satisfaction from electronic services and satisfaction from the elements of service time, previous transactions, ease of use, concern for security of personal data, and with the frequency of the user s visits to the municipal website. Finally, they noted that use of each type of electronic service the municipality provided (whether information or transaction-based) depend on age, ease of use, and citizens concern for their personal data security and privacy. Lai and Pires (2010) wanted to identify and examine factors influencing e-government portal satisfaction, and the intention to reuse among individual citizens in Macao.They used a web-based questionnaire to collect data from users of Macao's e-government portal. Researchers found that satisfaction (SAT) mediated between success factors and Usage intention (UI). Also when examining specific factors, they found that Information Licensed under Creative Common Page 3

4 quality (IQ), System quality (SQ), and Social influence (SI) were the main factors influencing user adoption of, and satisfaction with, the e-government portal. Meanwhile, perceived effectiveness did not appear to have an effect on satisfaction with or adoption of these e-services. On the other hand, information quality was identified as the most important factor influencing satisfaction and intention to reuse the site. Bavarsad and Mennatyan (2013) objective to measure the effect of technology acceptance factors on user satisfaction with e-government services. These researchers used questionnaires to collect data from a sample of users of e-government services.the model they used is based on Davis' technology acceptance model (1985) and Papadomichelaki & Mentzas' e-service quality model (2012). Bavarsad and Mennatyan found a positive and significant effect of ease of use, trust, content, and appearance of information, as well as of perceived usefulness, on user satisfaction. They also noted that there was no significant relationship between reliability or citizen support on the satisfaction of e-service users. Rahim and Alharbi (2014) goal to develop a conceptual model for user satisfaction with e- government websites. For an initial empirical validation of the model, they examined an e- government web site developed for the Australian department of immigration and citizenship. They administered a questionnaire to collect data from users of this system. They noted that the main factors that affected user satisfaction were utility, ease of use, customization and website understandability.also they pointed out the positive relationship between user satisfaction and trust in e-government and the negative relationship between user satisfaction and user anxiety towards using the e-government website. Sá, Rocha, and Cota (2014) purpose to develop a suitable methodology to evaluate the quality of local e-government online services, which could be used as the basis of future work.sá, Rocha and Cota reviewed several studies that evaluate the quality of both traditional and e-government services. They analyzed each methodology used in these studies to identify the main dimensions of quality that were employed. One of important studies they used was Parasuraman, Zeitham, and Berry (1985), which included one of the first models to measure the quality of services. On the other hand, these researchers also set out many of the methodologies used to measure the quality of e-government services. One of these studies Papadomichelaki and Mentzas (2009) study, in which the e-govqual is created and contextualized as one of the models; its main purpose is to measure the quality of e-government services. The goal of this research is toidentify factors that impact on citizens and residents satisfaction with e-government initiatives and which ultimately affect adoption of these services by individuals in Saudi Arabia. For that this research assume the following hypotheses: H1: system quality (SQ) has a positive impact on satisfaction of e-government. H2: information quality (IQ) has a positive impact on satisfaction of e-government. H3: Perceived effectiveness (PE) has a positive impact on satisfaction of e-government. H4: Social influence (SI) has a positive impact on satisfaction of e-government. Licensed under Creative Common Page 4

5 H5: All factors have a positive impact on satisfaction of e-government. II. Methodology The research has been conducted using a quantitative method. The survey questionnaire was adopted for this study to test the research model and to allow for an in-depth examination of the factors. The research community includes the users of e-government systems or portals specially that directed to citizens and residents (G2C). Participants The data used in the research to test this model were obtained from a sample of users of various G2C e-government applications. These users were working in government and private institutions in two cities in Saudi Arabia: Jeddah and Hail. The government institutions whose employees were included were King Abdulaziz University (KAU) and Hail General Hospital. Other participantswere employed by private institutions, including branches of Riyad Bank and the Alrajhi Bank, Effat University, and many other organisations. A total of 500 questionnaires were distributed to these employers, and 233 responses were received, representing a 46.6% response rate. Procedures A questionnaire was distributed by hand and online to collect data from the participants. The online version of the questionnaire was distributed by the research services unit of KAU s Deanship of Graduate Studies to administrative and faculty staff s in two section (male and female) in the main branch. The online version was not a successful method to gather data from participants. Alternatively, questionnaires distributed by hand were the best way to collect data; a total of 233 questionnaires were collected in this way. Participants were first asked whether they had ever used any e-government systems as a citizen or a resident. Those who replied in the affirmative were asked to participate in the survey. Through the questionnaire, participants were asked to write down the name of an e-government system they had used. The G2C applications mentioned by participants included the Saudi National Portal, the website of the Interior Ministry, Absher, Eskan, and others. For each question, participants were asked to check ( ) theappropriate item which best described their level of agreement. Material The main instrument used to collect data in this research was the questionnaire (Appendix A). It was prepared by the researcher based on the study model and reviewed by two doctors from KAU. It is worth noting that the questionnaire was written in English and translated into Arabic. In this questionnaire, two measurement scales were used: Likert and multiple choice (in general questions). The Likert format provides a statement to which the respondent must take one of the five positions ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree (1 = Strongly Disagree, 2 = Disagree, 3 = Neutral, 4 = Agree, and 5 = Strongly Agree). It included two parts. The first part contained general information about the participants: the name of the electronic government websites (e-government) that they used, as well as their gender, nationality, Licensed under Creative Common Page 5

6 age, education level, Internet usage frequency, and method of using the Saudi government website. The second part of the questionnaire was related to factors affecting satisfaction of e-government. The research model - System Quality (SQ) - Information Quality (IQ) - Perceived Effectiveness (PE) - Social Influence (SI) Satisfaction (SAT) Fig1.Satisfaction with E-government Model (the Research Model). Fig1. Satisfaction with E-government Model (the Research Model). The above model used in this research is based on those used in previous studies. It examines the success factors and their impact on acceptance and satisfaction of e- government websites, and their adoption by individual citizens in Saudi Arabia. The model includes four variables: System Quality (SQ), Information Quality (IQ), Perceived Effectiveness (PE) and Social Influence (SI), as the basic factors that can impact the success of e-government systems. Information Quality (IQ) This is defined as "the degree to which information on the e-government portal is perceived to be accurate, relevant, complete and in the format required by the user"(lai & Pires, 2010, p.36). Also, the literature has identified other measures or sub-dimensions to ensure information quality, such as timeliness and usefulness of content (Wang & Liao, 2008). System Quality (SQ) This is defined as "the degree to which the e-government portal is easy to use to accomplish a desired goal"(lai & Pires, 2010, p.36). According to Lai and Pires (2010), the three properties or attributes an e-government website must have, to achieve SQ, are: the user can access the website quickly, usability and navigation "the extent to which the website allows a user to easily find needed information"(lai & Pires, 2010, p.36). Licensed under Creative Common Page 6

7 Perceived Effectiveness (PE) This has been described as "the degree to which a user believes the website to be useful, or the website enables users to gather information about government services quickly and enhances users effectiveness in searching for and using government services on the Internet"(Lai & Pires, 2010, p.36). It is similar in meaning to perceived usefulness or, in other words, represents performance expected of the website (Lai & Pires, 2010). Social Influence (SI) This concept "refers to user perception of peers' expectations about their use of the website"(lai & Pires, 2010, p.36). User Satisfaction User satisfaction is a key measure of success in the field of IT. It can be defined as "the positive perceptions expressed by computer application users"(rahim & Alharbi, 2014, p. 245). Originally, the concept of user satisfaction was developed in the context of End User Computing (EUC). It has since been extended to include e-business and e-government contexts where user satisfaction is viewed as a measure of success. (Rahim & Alharbi, 2014). III. Data Analysis & Results Measures of Reliability One of the most popular reliability statistics in use today is Cronbach's alpha.the alpha coefficient ranges in value from 0 to 1. The higher the value, the more reliable the generated scale is. The value of Cronbach s alpha for the Scale and the for factors tends to large (near to one) and more the than 0.70, which indicates the reliability of the considered scale and the factors. General information about the participations in this study(the distribution of the sample according to the general variables) The participants in the sample were of both sexes, with 54.5% being male and 45.5% being female. According to the data, 89.7% of the participants were Saudi and 10.3% of participants were of other nationalities. The majority of the participants (43.3%) were aged between 28 and 37 years. The next largest age group was years (25.8% of participants). 22.3% of participants were in the age category and a further 8.6% were in the age category.63.5% of the participants had a bachelor s degree and many of other education levels to participants in this study. The majority of the participants used the internet on an ongoing basis; 56.7% stated that they use it at least once a day. The e-government website used most commonly by the participants was the Absher system. Other e-government websites used by the participants were the Saudi National Portal, theministry of the Interior s website and Eskan, as well as others but these systems were used by a few participants only and this may be because some citizens are unaware of them or know very little about them. Licensed under Creative Common Page 7

8 The Results of Research Variables This part of the study demonstrate the general trend for each of the factors. Based on the responses overall for the whole factors, agree is the most popular. The mean weight of the responses ranged from These figures out confirm the significance of system quality, information quality, perceived effectiveness and social influence in relation to levels of satisfaction with e-government. Testing Hypotheses To test hypotheses, this study used two statistical methods which are correlation and regression. Indep. Factor Mea n SQ Constant value IQ Constant value PE Constant value SI Constant value SQ IQ PE SI Constant value Table 1. Results for the tests of hypotheses T-Test F-Test Std. Beta Dev. T F B B B B B B B B B B B B B Sig. p- value Sig. p- value R R Licensed under Creative Common Page 8

9 1- The above table shows results of test hypotheses. The table clearly demonstrates positive signs of all regression factors when the first four hypotheses are examined. This indicates that there is a positive relationship between these factors and satisfaction with e- government. In addition, this means that when these factors increase, then the satisfaction with e-government will likewise increase. 2- Also, when the study examined the impact of all the factors on satisfaction with e- government, it is found the following: - Each of the three independent factors SQ, IQ, and PE has a positive impact on satisfaction with e-government; this means that whenever they increase then satisfaction of e-government increase. - The independent factor SI and the constant factor do not have impacts on satisfaction with e-government because their regression factors are not significant. However, it is important to know the ranking and the importance of each of the variables SQ, IQ, and PE.There is a method that can fulfill this requirement is Stepwise multiple regression. Stepwise multiple regression The method of stepwise regression yields the following rankings for the three independent variables: x2 (IQ) is the most important independent variable affecting satisfaction with e- government. x3 (PE) is the second-most important independent variable affecting satisfaction with e- government. x1 (SQ) is the third-most (and final) important independent variable affecting satisfaction with e-government IV. CONCLUSIONS AND DISCUSSION The present research investigated the impact of the following variables on individuals satisfaction with e-government in Saudi Arabia: information quality (IQ), system quality (SQ), perceived effectiveness (PE) and social influence (SI). The overall responses, the statistical analysis for the statements regarding system quality and hypothesis result indicates that there is positive relationship between system quality and user satisfaction, a finding which is in agreement with the research hypothesis. The majority of the previous studies note that there are many important aspects related to system quality. These items include accessibility, ease of use, the design of the website (which must be user friendly) and system compatibility. These items were included in this study and their importance was measured to indicate the effects on user satisfaction in Saudi Arabia. There are several reasons why system quality is related to user satisfaction with e-government systems. Ease of use is essential when considering communities that might not have high levels of computer literacy because those who are unable to utilise the systems will not be able to benefit from such services. This would mean that the goal Licensed under Creative Common Page 9

10 of e-government services would not be achieved.simplicity is needed, therefore, in these systems so that they will be used. The ease of online services could overcome the ease of traditional process which makes it even more acceptable. The overall response, the statistical analysis for the statements regarding information quality and hypothesis result indicate that there is positive relationship between information quality and user satisfaction. This result confirms the research hypothesis. There are many reasons why information quality is related to user satisfaction, such as users need for accurate, relevant and complete information, where e-government services are concerned. Users need to be able to trust and rely on such information if they are to use e-government systems. In existing studies that measure the success of e- government systems and IS in general, researchers have identified many different items that must be made available within these systems. One important factor for achieving success, it has been found, is the quality of the information. Such information must be accurate, relevant, useful, understandable, concise and complete; it must be displayed in a suitable format and updated regularly. These points have been included in this study to help measure the impact of information quality on the success of e-government systems. Citizens satisfaction levels will be higher if they believe that such websites will provide them with valuable services, which, in turn, will lead them to continue to use such e- government services. Information quality, therefore, is an important factor in user satisfaction with e-government systems. The overall response, the statistical analysis for the statements regarding perceived effectiveness and hypothesis result indicate that there is a positive relationship between perceived effectiveness and user satisfaction, which accords with the research hypothesis. Perceived effectiveness appears frequently as a key factor in studies about the acceptance of, and satisfaction with, e-government. These studies define this factor as the belief that systems will provide users with useful services. The important benefits related to this factor are the saving of money and time. Users must expect these benefits in order to accept a change from traditional methods to e-services. The perceived effectiveness or usefulness of a specific system depends on the stakeholders being served. This study has focused on G2C systems, stressing that citizens must view e-government systems as being time saving, when compared with the traditional services provided by a government. Furthermore, the performance of such systems must be high enough that individuals will see them as being effective. In other words, when users believe that there are benefits associated with using these websites, they will be satisfied with the services. In this way, perceived effectiveness is an important measurement of success for G2C systems. The overall response, the statistical analysis for the statements regarding social influence and hypothesis result indicate that there is a positive relationship between social influence and user satisfaction, which supports the research hypothesis. Many studies indicate that social influence is one of the factors that have an impact on the acceptance of e-government and the levels of satisfaction that people have with e- government systems. This factor can motivate users to try new services, which has an effect on satisfaction levels. Government must try, therefore, to create a culture of e- government service use, making it a social norm. This can be achieved through Licensed under Creative Common Page 10

11 simplifying the experience of using e-government to encourage users to recommend the system to each other. The important points used in this study to measure the effect of social influence on the adoption of e-government are friends, colleagues influence and important people s influence. Future Work A future study could take more variables that affect individuals satisfaction with e- government into account. In addition, the participants in this study were users of e- government services in two cities in Saudi Arabia, Jeddah and Hail. Future studies could be applied to other cities in Saudi Arabia. Moreover, this study could be applied to other e- government websites directed to individuals in other countries. V. LIST OF REFERENCES Almarabeh, T., & AbuAli, A. (2010). A general framework for e-government: Definition maturity challenges, opportunities, and success.european Journal of Scientific Research,39(1), Bavarsad, B., & Mennatyan, M. A. (2013). A study of the effects of technology acceptance factors on users satisfaction of e-government services.world Applied Programming,3(5), Delitheou, V., & Maraki, M. (2010). Research into citizens attitude towards electronic municipal services (e-local government).journal of Public Administration and Policy Research,2(3), Horan, T. A., & Abhichandani, T. (2006). Evaluating user satisfaction in an e-government initiative: Results of structural equation modeling and focus group discussions.journal of information technology management,17(4), Hung, S. Y., Chang, C. M., & Yu, T. J. (2006). Determinants of user acceptance of the e- government services: The case of online tax filing and payment system.government Information Quarterly,23(1), Lai, C. S. K., & Pires, G. (2010). Testing of a model evaluating e-government portal acceptance and satisfaction.the Electronic Journal Information Systems Evaluation,13(1), Rahim, M. M., & Alharbi, I. (2014, December). User satisfaction with e-government websites: An Australian experience. InComputer and Information Technology (ICCIT), th International Conference (pp ). IEEE. Sá, F., Rocha, Á., & Cota, M. P. (2014, September). Quality models of e-government online services towards a local focus: Towards a local focus. InComputer and Information Technology (CIT), 2014 IEEE International Conference (pp ). IEEE. Wang, Y. S., & Liao, Y. W. (2008). Assessing e-government systems success: A validation of the DeLone and McLean model of information systems success. Government Information Quarterly, 25(4), Licensed under Creative Common Page 11