One of the strongest driving factors to construct e-government is customer-friendly government. According to Timonen, O’Donnell, and Humphreys (2003), the main motivation to develop e-government in Ireland is not a cost savings, but a desire to make efficient, citizen-oriented, and customer-friendly government. More importantly, based on survey results of 250 state-level government departments in Australia, Canada, and the United States, Breen (2000) found that governments think about their interaction with their citizens as they begin to realize that an enterprise approach
Repeated Use of E-Gov Web Stes
to customer service yields the best results in starting e-government service. From these research findings, we strongly imply that success of e-government depends on how governments provide high-quality and customer-centric e-government services to the citizen.
One of the critical factors in the success of e-government is government Web sites.
To attract more citizens to government Web sites, government should provide high- quality Web sites.
Bruno et al. (1997) and Agarwal, Ghosh, Banerjee, and Kishore (2000) present major components of quality Web sites. These include well-structured databases;
well-presented multimedia, such as streaming video; audio; and quick and error-free navigation. To make users stay on the Web site, a server has to have short response time and be reliable in allowing many users on the Web site simultaneously.
The relationship between the quality of a Web site and the success of a Web site has been discussed in some papers. According to Palmer (2002), Web site-quality indica- tors leading to Web site success can be measured by connection speed, navigability, interactivity, responsiveness, and quality content. A study by Bateson (1984) found that efficiency and speed are the attributes highly important to a user. Web site qual- ity has also been found to have a positive effect on developing customers’ trusting intentions toward an e-commerce Web site (McKnight, Choudhury, & Kacmar, 2000). Thus, Web site service quality can be assumed as one of the strong predictors of e-government success and a user’s intention to repeatedly use an e-government Web sites. To study the relationship between Web site service quality and a user’s intention to use e-government Web site, we introduce the SERVPERF model. A performance-based service quality measurement scale, SERVPERF, developed by Cronin and Taylor (1992), measures the quality of a service perceived by a consumer based on his or her perception of the performance of a service provider. They find that consumers’ satisfaction with the service is positively related to their perception of the performance. Similarly, Alford (1996), Chenet, Tynan, and Money (1999), and Ennew (1999) also find a focal relationship between the perceived performance of a service and satisfaction based on the SERVPERF scale.
Consumers are thought to have a positive perception of technology-based service attributes since they believe technology will deliver faster and more efficient ser- vices than that of an employee (Weatherall, Ledingham, &Worell, 1984; Angur et al., 1999). Furthermore, performance of the Web site has a direct impact on online consumers’ satisfaction ( Kohli, Devaraj, & Mahmood, 2004). From prior research findings, we can expect that users, who think e-government Web sites perform well, will have a tendency to have a higher level of satisfaction with a Web site. Thus, a user’s perception of performance of an e-government Web site may increase the user’s level of satisfaction with the Web site. We therefore hypothesize the following:
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Hypothesis.1:.Perceived performance of an e-gov Web site will positively affect a user’s level of satisfaction.
Cronin (1992) points out that increased satisfaction with service enhances custom- ers’ repurchasing intentions towards that product or service. Similarly, Anderson, and Sullivan (1993) found that a customer’s repurchase intention was increased when they are more satisfied with products. In an online context, a study by Kim, Ferrin, and Rao (2003) supports this relationship, where they find that satisfaction is a strong predictor of the consumer’s repurchase intention. Bearden and Jessie (1983) and Churchill and Carol (1982) also confirm that the customer’s satisfaction leads to a repurchase intention on e-commerce Web sites. In the Web site context, Loiacono, Chen, and Goodhue (2002) found that Web site quality, such as usefulness, entertainment and response time, is a major factor that aids in predicting a Web consumer’s intention to reuse a Web site. This means that a user’s satisfaction about e-commerce Web site quality is one of the factors that influences increase in users’
continuous use of a Web site.
Based on previous research, we expect a positive relationship between a user’s satisfaction and a user’s intention to continue to use an e-gov Web site. If users are satisfied, they will have more of an inclination to use the e-gov Web site repeatedly when they need to contact or get a service. Therefore:
Hypothesis.2:.The user’s level of satisfaction with an e-gov Web site will positively affect a user’s intention to continue to use the e-gov Web site.
Previous research indicates that a user’s perceived performance toward products or a Web site can be another strong factor that indicates a user’s intention of re- peated purchase, along with customer’s satisfactions of products (Cronin et al., 2000). Brady, Cronin, and Brand (2002) analyzed this relationship and found that both perceived performance and service quality positively influence consumers’
repurchase intentions. From these research findings, we can hypothesize that users who have a high level of perceived performance of an e-government Web site will have more inclination towards usage of an e-government Web site. If users think that the e-government Web sites perform well, they will be more satisfied, which will result in an increased intention to repeatedly and continually use the Web site.
In this study, we assume that there is a positive relationship between the user’s perceived performance of an e-gov Web site and the user’s intention to continue to use the Web site. Therefore:
Hypothesis.3: The user’s perceived performance of an e-gov Web site will positively affect a user’s intention to continue to use an e-gov Web site.
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Moderating.Effects.of.Gender.and.Race
Gender differences in technology adoption, usage behavior and perception has been extensively studied in various literatures. Several studies suggest that gender difference is a strong predicator of a user’s usage behavior and perception of technology. Gefen and Straub (1997) found that women and men show difference in perceptions and usage of e-mail. Their study confirms that women and men differ in their perception of the social presence of e-mail. Women also perceive a higher value of usefulness than men do. Their research supports the notion that men feel more at ease with computers than women do. Other studies point out that that gender differences play a significant role in a user’s online purchase intention (Kim & Kim, 2004; Larsen & Oystein, 2005; Slyke, Comunale, & Belanger, 2002).
Male employees have a tendency to use the internet more frequently then female workers in an organization (Larsen & Oystein, 2005). In contrast to gender differ- ences on technology adoption research, studies researching racial differences with the intention of using technology or usage behavior are few. However, Kolodinsky, Hogarth, and Hilgert (2004) found that there is no significant difference between various races while considering the utilization of e-banking.
Based on these previous research findings, we propose the next two hypotheses.
Hypothesis.4:.Gender difference will have a moderating effect on the relationship between the user’s level of satisfaction with an e-gov Web site and the user’s inten- tion to continue to use the e-gov Web site.
Hypothesis.5: Race difference will have a moderating effect on the relationship between the user’s level of satisfaction with the e-gov Web site and the user’s inten- tion to continue to use the e-Gov Web site.