Using government websites to enhance democratic E-governance: A conceptual model for evaluation

An analysis of E-governance in Pakistan from the lens of the Chinese governance model

In this era of digitalization, the role of information and communication technology (ICT) has significantly increased. The integration of ICT into the government system has improved efficiency and working processes. Some countries such as China have successfully integrated ICT into their governance system. However, many other countries especially the developing world are yet to effectively utilize the role of ICT in their governance structure and these countries are struggling to produce a better governance system. It is, therefore, imperative for the developing world to learn from successful nations and devise their governance systems so that ICT can be fully utilized and produce good governance. However, such comparative analyses are not done as such to bring strengths and weaknesses in the integration of ICT into the governance system especially in developing countries' governance systems. This study contributes by conducting a comparative study on the China-Pakistan e-government progress. China has widely implemented e-government, which has helped the country to ensure good governance. Pakistan, on the other hand, is also moving towards digitalization and making efforts to implement e-government. This research examines the United Nations' E-Government Development Index (EGDI) reports and rankings. The findings of our research show that China has significantly improved its ranking, whereas Pakistan's ranking has indicated a gradual decline except for the year 2008. This happened because of a lack of investment in infrastructure, scarcity of financial resources, weak institutional capabilities, and limited access to advanced technologies. Moreover, there is a big gap between public policy and public implementation in Pakistani scenarios. However, it has been dug out in this study that employing the Chinese model and seeking cooperation with China can improve e-governance ranking and overall governance in Pakistan. The study advances the understanding of e-governance and its challenges in Pakistan and the findings of the study will assist researchers, policymakers, and officials in the implementation and development of e-projects in Pakistan.

The determinants of smart government systems adoption by public sector organizations in Saudi Arabia

This study investigates the determinants of smart government systems that are used in public service organizations in Saudi Arabia. The world's developed nations have conducted studies on smart government systems, but little research has been done on the Middle East, particularly in Saudi Arabia. This study fills the lacuna in the literature. Based on a number of theories including the Technology, Organization, and Environment framework (TOE), Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), and Technology Acceptance Models (TAM), the study established an integrated conceptual research model. Online survey questionnaires were sent to 2060 employees in four ministries and after the second reminder a total of 427 completed answers were received, of which 419 (22% response rate) were deemed useable for the analysis. Multivariate statistical analysis was used to analyze the data and results indicated that 51% of the variance (R2 = 0.51) of employees' perceptions of smart government systems is explained by independent determinants. Findings show that security concerns (t (419) = 2.051, p < 0.041), ICT strategy (t (419) = 4.215, p < 0.000), managerial support (t (419) = 5.027, p < 0.000), incentives (t (419) = 5.263, p < 0.000), and trust (t (419) = -1.957, p < 0.050) are significant predictors of smart government systems acceptance. Meanwhile cultural values (t (419) = 0.669, p < 0.504) and religious values (t (419) = 1.082, p < 0.280) have no significant effect on the attitude to smart system adoption. Perception was found to have a strong significant effect on adoption of smart government systems (t (419) = 8.411, p < 0.000). These results have significant implications for the Saudi government's drive to implement smart government systems in all its agencies.

Website quality evaluation: a model for developing comprehensive assessment instruments based on key quality factors

Purpose

The field of website quality evaluation attracts the interest of a range of disciplines, each bringing its own particular perspective to bear. This study aims to identify the main characteristics – methods, techniques and tools – of the instruments of evaluation described in this literature, with a specific concern for the factors analysed, and based on these, a multipurpose model is proposed for the development of new comprehensive instruments.

Design/methodology/approach

Following a systematic bibliographic review, 305 publications on website quality are examined, the field's leading authors, their disciplines of origin and the sectors to which the websites being assessed belong are identified, and the methods they employ characterised.

Findings

Evaluations of website quality tend to be conducted with one of three primary focuses: strategic, functional or experiential. The technique of expert analysis predominates over user studies and most of the instruments examined classify the characteristics to be evaluated – for example, usability and content – into factors that operate at different levels, albeit that there is little agreement on the names used in referring to them.

Originality/value

Based on the factors detected in the 50 most cited works, a model is developed that classifies these factors into 13 dimensions and more than 120 general parameters. The resulting model provides a comprehensive evaluation framework and constitutes an initial step towards a shared conceptualization of the discipline of website quality.

Three Cities on YouTube

Local governments are enhancing their governance through various information communication technologies (ICTs). This article presents an exploratory case study of three municipalities within the United States, examining how each applies YouTube for communication. Using content analysis and selected statistical tests of mean difference, the authors analyzed the videos uploaded between January 2020 to August 2020. The three municipalities used YouTube to document policymaking, publicize programs and services, update critical information during times of crises, and, in some cases, create unique brand images. The average number of views per video were similar across the three YouTube channels. However, one of the municipalities received a statistically significant number of average likes per video, which spotlights its positive brand image. In conclusion, the authors suggest directions for future research and recommend practices for social media adaptation in government.

User profiling and role evaluation of government microbloggers in the context of public emergencies

Purpose

This study aims to profile the government microbloggers and evaluate their roles. The results can help improve the governments' response capability to public emergencies.

Design/methodology/approach

This study proposes the user profiling and role evaluation model of government microbloggers in the context of public emergencies. The indicators are designed from the four dimensions of time, content, scale and influence, and the feature labels are identified. Three different public emergencies were investigated, including the West Africa Ebola outbreak, the Middle East respiratory syndrome outbreak and the Shandong vaccine case in China.

Findings

The results found that most government microbloggers were follower responders, short-term participants, originators, occasional participants and low influencers. The role distribution of government microbloggers was highly concentrated. However, in terms of individual profiles, the role of a government microblogger varied with events.

Social implications

The findings can provide a reference for the performance assessment of the government microbloggers in the context of public emergencies and help them improve their ability to communicate with the public and respond to public emergencies.

Originality/value

By analyzing the performance of government microbloggers from the four dimensions of time, content, scale and influence, this paper fills the gap in existing literature on designing the user profiling and role evaluation model of government microbloggers in the context of public emergencies.

Effect of perceived risks, perceived benefits and regulatory events on users’ supervision intention towards e-hailing platforms: A mixed method

Research on platform governance has gained extensive scholarly interest. However, studies on user participation intention towards platform supervision remain underexplored. In this study, a mixed method approach, including qualitative and quantitative methods, is used to explore the factors influencing the supervision intention of e-hailing users. A preliminary interview study is conducted to determine what factors impact users’ supervision intention, and an SEM model is tested using 359 survey data to examine how perceived government regulation, perceived risks/benefits and regulatory events impact supervision intention. Results indicate that perceived government regulation reduces perceived risks and increases the perceived benefits from participation into supervision, perceived risks weakened users’ supervision intention, whereas perceived benefits stimulated it. Perceived risks and perceived benefits positively mediated the relationship between perceived government regulation and users’ supervision intention. Regulatory events have a negative moderating effect on the relationship between e-hailing users’ perceived risks (benefits) and supervision intention.

Exploring the information quality of mobile government services: a literature review

This article aims to investigate the constructs that can be used to evaluate the information quality (IQ) of mobile government services. The dimension of IQ is one of the fundamental constructs that assesses the extent of information based on its accuracy, usefulness, and timeliness. Based on the review of previous studies, there is a lack of studies related to mGovernment service quality. It is not practical to measure the service quality of mGovernment by using other measurement scales such as e-service, e-commerce, or e-government. Therefore, it is necessary to understand each dimension that guides constructing a comprehensive framework to measure service quality at mGovernment. The constructs of information quality were extracted from previous literature in mobile government, mobile application service, and e-government to understand the development stages, structure, and unique features-this guide to conduct the systematic literature review to clarify the constructs belonging to the evaluation of information quality. The present article identified six constructs-understandability, timeliness, accuracy, completeness, availability, and usefulness-to measure the information quality of mobile government service. There is limited literature on mGovernment information service quality. With the development of government services on mobile devices, it is necessary to measure information quality at mGovernment service channel to understand users' expectations. The mGovernment service provider benefits from measuring the service quality by improving the strategy and criteria of information at mGovernment portal. In addition, the end-users expect to perform the service with the best quality level of the information supplied and displayed on mGovernment platform.

The Official Website as an Essential E-Governance Tool: A Comparative Analysis of the Romanian Cities’ Websites in 2019 and 2022

This paper aims to measure the quality of all Romanian cities’ websites in 2019 and 2022, before and after the disruptive event of COVID-19. Since the official websites are the core instrument of e-governance, the changes in the quality of Romanian cities’ websites reflect the changes in the development of urban e-governance in Romania. The COVID-19 lockdowns and contact restrictions and the moving of most activities into the online environment had the potential to impact the performance of Romanian cities’ websites significantly and catalyze the progress of local e-governance. The quality of Romanian cities’ official websites was measured using an adapted survey instrument proposed by Holzer and Kim and Manoharan, Melitski, and Holzer. The tool covers five critical criteria of website quality or performance: personal data security, usability, content, services, and citizen participation. The research results may seem contrary to expectations: the improvements of websites have been incremental rather than transformational. Although our research provides only a case study, we may assert that the reform of traditional administration remains a step-by-step process. Our study’s main contribution consists in showing that the progress of e-governance is an incremental process even in a situation of emergency that requires the moving of most activities into the online environment.

A conceptual model of the relationship between organisational intelligence traits and digital government service quality: the role of occupational stress

Purpose

This paper presents a conceptual model that links digital government service quality with organisational intelligence (OI) traits and occupational stress among the service providers in the public sector.

Design/methodology/approach

This is a conceptual paper that carries out a systematic review of the key literature from 1978 to 2021, concerning the evolution of models, scales and dimensions attributing to digital government service quality, OI traits and occupational stress. Following this, a new conceptual model is proposed to reflect the need of today's public service delivery from a broader perspective.

Findings

Based on the reviews of the existing models, there is no convincing evidence of the existence of a conceptual model that incorporates digital government service quality, OI traits and occupational stress from the public service providers' viewpoint. Therefore, a conceptual model, with occupational stress acting as a mediator between various OI traits and digital government service quality, is presented as a comprehensive framework to heighten the quality of the public service delivery.

Originality/value

This paper explores the gap in the current service quality studies and proposes a conceptual model that is more reflective of today's public service delivery. Firstly, it helps better understand digital government service quality from a much less focused area, the supply side (service providers) standpoint as opposed to the demand side (citizen) viewpoint (citizen). Secondly, it extends the understanding of performance and evaluation of public service delivery from perspectives such as knowledge utilisation, strategic alignment and participatory decision-making. Thirdly, it extends the literature on digital service quality from a non-technological perspective, as to how it is influenced by employees' psychological well-being factors.

What publics do online matters: Internet use and political information behaviors

Purpose

This study aimed to examine the relationships between different uses of Internet modes and political participation, focusing on political information behaviors, including political information seeking and forwarding.

Design/methodology/approach

This study used secondary data from the 2016 Korea Media Panel Survey conducted with 8,439 Korean adults.

Findings

The results indicated that political participation is generally associated with the use of online news forums, online communities, online services and online information production, but not with the use of social networking sites (SNSs). Additional analyses revealed that the use of different Internet modes has an indirect effect on voting intention through political information seeking. The analysis also showed that a number of sociodemographic characteristics influence political participation.

Originality/value

As one of the first studies to focus on active information behaviors in examining the influence of Internet use, this study enhances the understanding of how human behaviors are shaped by digital technology. By providing guidelines for the use of different modes of the Internet, the findings of this study also have practical implications for efforts to encourage political participation.

Branding of Government Services: Benefits and Challenges

Till recently, brand management was perceived as a function exclusive to commercial organizations. However, the experiences of several nations have shown that branding can be an effective tool for managing government services also. This paper discusses the benefits of the current practices of branding in governance. A coherent branding strategy assists the departments in the formulation and delivery of services by having clarity of purpose and consistency in communication. The citizen benefits in various ways from a streamlined execution of the strategy. The paper also identifies the challenges for brand management to grow in the governance sphere.

Strategic Orientation and Effects of E-Administration: Findings from the Miles and Snow Framework

Much has been written about the strategic orientation of public administration organizations (prospecting, defending, reacting, and analyzing) and their consequences for organizational effects, but little is dedicated to e-administration. Is the provision of services using IT affecting the adoption of strategic orientation and its effects? The paper is dealing with e-administration issues, specifically in terms of the impact of the Miles and Snow strategic orientation on e-administration effects. To measure e-administration effects, the author’s personal tool using the Common Assessment Framework (CAF) criterion has been proposed. The data collection was conducted using the Computer-Assisted Web Interview (CAWI) method, in the period from November 2017 to January 2018. Two hundred and twenty-six Polish organizations took part in the study. The objective of this study, i.e., assessing the impact of strategic orientation and e-administration effects, was achieved by using the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) method. It is indicated that the Defender orientation is positively associated with the effects of e-administration.