A periodical analysis of e-government maturity in Saudi Arabia

Purpose Governments of the developing countries must be ready to embrace the evolution of information technology. However, the growth in demand for online services and expectations for convenient access to government resources are placing governments under pressure to deliver outstanding e-services. Despite the successful attempts of the Saudi Government to deliver e-government services, the literature still needs to be advanced with evidence to demonstrate the current status of government websites. Additionally, the growth of e-government services should be periodically monitored and evaluated. Design/methodology/approach This study aims to revisit e-government websites previously surveyed (2006-2012). in Saudi Arabia and examine growth based on the five-stage maturity model. This study supports the approach with a review of the United Nations data and links this assessment with the five-stage maturity model. Findings The results revealed remarkable improvements in the maturity level of online services provided by the government websites of Saudi Arabia. Practical implications The relationship between e-government use and investment decisions appears to be bidirectional, as greater levels of investment seem to offer more opportunities for service improvement. Originality/value The outcomes are expected to assist executive authorities in understanding the current situation of e-government and plan appropriate strategic suggestions and development.

A Mixed-Method Approach to Examining the Drivers and Outcomes of Citizens Trust towards e-government

This study investigates the antecedents and consequences of trust in e-government websites in Saudi Arabia. FSQCA and Structural equation modelling were used to analyse data collected from 504 participants. The findings indicate that our unified framework possesses some predictive ability regarding citizens' intentions to use e-government services, which was superior to existing theories. The findings indicate that (1) there is no sole factor that sufficiently motivates citizens to use e-government services; (2) three distinct settings of citizens' intention drivers are probable to lead in a significant level of citizens intending to use e-government services; and (3) Uncertainty avoidance has a moderating effect on citizens’, intention to use e-government services. The theoretical and practical implications were demonstrated.

Boosting E-Participation

In this chapter, the authors show two case studies of the use of social media in municipal governments: Lerma, a small municipality with a significant growth, and Metepec, an important municipality of the State of México. The purpose of this chapter is to provide empirical evidence of how social media improves government to citizen relationship and promotes e-participation in municipal governments. The results are based on semi-structured interviews applied to public servants and a survey to evaluate e-government services by citizens. So, the citizen perception is contrasted with public servants' interviews. Citizens consider that electronic procedures and services implemented by their municipalities do not generate value. The efforts of governments should focus on avoiding corruption, making governments transparent, opening data, and properly managing the privacy of information.

Drivers of E-Government Citizen Satisfaction and Adoption

This study investigated the impact of drivers of e-government, particularly social CRM, citizen trust, and quality of electronic services, on citizen satisfaction with e-government services in the Jordanian environment. In addition to measuring the impact of social CRM on citizen trust and service quality respectively and its impact on citizen satisfaction. A convenience sample was used to achieve the study purpose consisting of 386 questionnaires collected online. The resulting data was analyzed using PLS.2 software. The study findings reveal that social CRM has a significant impact on citizen trust and quality of electronic services, and furthermore that citizen trust and quality of electronic services have significant impacts on citizen satisfaction with e-government services. The study found no direct relationship between the use of social CRM and citizen-government satisfaction but showed a significant indirect impact via customer trust and service quality.

How to Gamify E-Government Services?

Although gamification has been applied to the e-government domain for the past 20 years, the literature shows that the field still lacks formal definitions to support the design of gamified strategies on these types of platforms and services, and that game element selection is often a subjective matter. This chapter provides a useful taxonomy of game elements to support the design of e-government initiatives, elaborated from the analysis of the literature on gamification frameworks and models applied to this domain. This work was additionally validated by gamification experts from public and private organizations during a series of workshops. A total of 30 commonly used game elements were selected, conceptualized, and classified into six dimensions. Gamification experts agreed that this work contributes to standardizing the game elements employed in e-government services, while the authors also believe this taxonomy can be a useful tool to analyze already existing frameworks.

Exploring Critical Success Factors Towards Adoption of M-Government Services in Tanzania

For the past decade, the Tanzanian government has started implementing m-government initiatives. However, little is known about the factors surrounding m-government adoption in Tanzania. Consequently, some m-government services have been successfully adopted while others are still struggling (having a low level of adoption). In this chapter, the authors investigate critical success factors (CSFs) that favor the adoption of m-government services from a web analytics point of view. The results show that inspecting the web analytics data from multiple viewpoints and varying levels of detail, gives insights on the CSFs towards the adoption of m-government services. The findings suggest that perceived usefulness, user needs, and usability favor the adoption of one m-government service over the other. Moreover, factors like the loading time of the service, the number of requests, and bounce rate seem not to have an effect.

Exploring Citizen-Centric E-Government Using a Democratic Theories Framework

In this chapter, the authors draw on Scott's work on e-government and democratic theories to examine how governments engage their citizens online. The three theories they focus on—representative, pluralist, and direct—are the most prominent in the democratic theory literature. Using data from 200 U.S. local governments, the authors examine two research questions: What factors drive governments to employ each theory? Which theory predominates in the implementation of e-government? The assumption is that providing answers to these two questions will help set the stage for future research linking e-government and democratic theory. The authors also explore this theory in e-government amidst the rise of m-government, whereby users access e-government services via mobile devices. They suggest as well what governments can do to move forward with their e-government and m-government efforts based on these theories.