An examination of citizen satisfaction with mandatory e-government services: comparison of two information systems success models

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study is to empirically examine the utility of information systems (IS) success models in mandatory e-government services, as opposed to the volitional ones that have been the focus of previous studies. The models include the technology acceptance model (TAM) (1989) and Seddon’s model (1997), which involve three (ease of use, usefulness and citizens satisfaction) and four variables (system quality, information quality, usefulness and citizen satisfaction). Design/methodology/approach The models were compared based on a survey conducted on 780 foundation year students of government universities in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Government has launched a mandatory e-government service geared to assist high school graduates in the university academic admission process. The goodness-of-fit and parsimony of fit indices and the explanatory power were used to compare the two models. Findings The structural equation modeling techniques revealed that overall, the two models both exhibited reasonable fit with the collected data, whereas TAM showed the best fit to the sample data and yielded superior goodness-of-fit indices over Seddon’s model. In terms of explanatory power, Seddon’s model predicted 28% (R2 = 0.28) of the variance explained for citizen satisfaction, whereas TAM predicted 21% (R2 = 0.21). All the parsimony of fit indices favored TAM over Seddon’s model. Research limitations/implications This study examined the validity of TAM and Seddon’s model, using citizen satisfaction as the dependent variable to compare them. TAM and Seddon’s model were modified to better fit the current research context of mandatory e-government services; thus, the findings may not hold for their original or other voluntary settings. In addition, the focus on a single survey for a certain time in a certain territory of mandatory e-government service may have limited the generalizability of the results to other mandatory contexts. Future research should make use of large, cross-sectional samples in different mandatory contexts to enhance result generalization. Practical implications This study’s findings can provide e-government practitioners with deeper perceptions of how to address citizen satisfaction with mandatory e-government services. The results exposed usefulness as the common and major construct, having the strongest influence on citizen satisfaction in both TAM and Seddon’s model; thus, maximizing the benefits of e-government services for citizens is crucial to their success. The causal relationship between information quality and citizen satisfaction was not supported. This supports the perspective that e-government services are currently evolving quickly, becoming more integrated and easier-to-use, generally requiring only a few clicks and less information. Originality/value This study has extended the assessment of the validity of IS success models to a mandatory IS usage setting. The comparison study of different IS success models is crucial as it acts as a guide for researchers to determine the trade-off between the models used to conduct research on a particular context. The study concludes that TAM is the most parsimonious and universal model for the study of user satisfaction in mandatory contexts. The findings will provide e-government practitioners with insights into IS success measures suited to enhance the effectiveness of newly and future mandated e-government services.