Design characteristics and service experience with e-government services: A public value perspective

Abstract

We propose a model that explains how e-government service design characteristics influence citizens’ service experience. Drawing on the public value perspective, we define four categories of e-government impacts and identify their corresponding design characteristics: (1) capability—accuracy and completeness; (2) interactions—accessibility and self-service capability; (3) orientation—user support and personalization capability; and (4) value distribution—privacy protection. We propose that citizens’ perceptions of the design characteristics affect four core technology beliefs—i.e., performance expectancy, effort expectancy, facilitating conditions, and trust—that in turn affect two service experience outcomes—i.e., perceived service quality and continuance intention. We tested our model in a two-stage survey of 2623 users of two e-government services—i.e., an e-government portal and an online appointment booking service. The results showed that citizens’ perceptions of the design characteristics predict the core technology beliefs that in turn predict perceived service quality and eventually continuance intention. Further mediation analyses showed that the core technology beliefs significantly mediate the effects of design characteristics on perceived service quality, but with different patterns of full and partial mediation across the two services. These findings contribute to understanding the underlying mechanisms through which service design characteristics influence service experience. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications on e-government service design and delivery.