Computers in Human Behavior 53 (2015) 189–203

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Computers in Human Behavior

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Full Length Article

The imperative of influencing citizen attitude toward e-government

adoption and use
Omar Al-Hujran a, Mutaz M. Al-Debei b,⇑, Akemi Chatfield c, Mahmoud Migdadi a
a
Department of Management Information Systems, The King Talal Faculty of Business and Technology, Princess Sumaya University for Technology, Jordan
b
Department of Management Information Systems, Business School, The University of Jordan, Jordan
c
School of Information Systems and Technology, Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences, University of Wollongong, Australia

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: With the imperative of e-government for better transparency, accountability and public services, the
Received 17 March 2015 problem of low-level citizen adoption of e-government services has been recognized in developed and
Revised 8 May 2015 developing countries. This pressing problem needs socio-technological, political, and cultural perspec-
Accepted 12 June 2015
tives. In this study we develop an integrative research model by extending extant Technology
Acceptance Model through the incorporation of a set of social, political, and cultural constructs: trust,
perceived public value, and national culture. The model is then tested using a large-scale, multi-site
Keywords:
survey research of 413 Jordanian citizens. Our results find strong evidence that citizen attitude toward
E-government adoption
Attitude
using e-government services is the most significant determinant of citizen intention to adopt and use
Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) e-government services. Citizen attitude, in turn, is jointly determined by perceived public value and
Culture perceived ease of use. These results have managerial implications that the government needs to pay
Trust closer attention to influencing citizen attitude toward using e-government services.
Perceived public value Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Achieving these goals require greater public engagement in

e-government services. However, despite the noticeable efforts in
Electronic government (e-government) refers to the use of this domain, many governments worldwide are still facing the
information and communication technology (ICT) tools and appli- pressing problem of low-level adoption of e-government services
cations to enhance government transparency and accountability in by citizens (Al-Hujran, Aloudat, & Altarawneh, 2013; Belanger &
public administration by improving public services delivery, access Carter, 2008; Gupta, Dasgupta, & Gupta, 2008; Hamner &
to information and services and public governance (Chatfield & Al-Qahtani, 2009; Kumar, Mukerji, Butt, & Persaud, 2007; Lin,
Alhujran, 2009; Ciborra & Navarra, 2005; Panagiotopoulos, Fofanah, & Liang, 2011; Rana & Dwivedi, 2015). This pressing
Al-Debei, Fitzgerald, & Elliman, 2012). The characteristics of good problem needs urgent research attention since the success of
public governance include improved transparency and account- e-government is highly dependent upon citizens’ adoption and
ability. The promise of greater government transparency and use of e-government services (Carter & Bélanger, 2005; Ozkan &
accountability is often the reason for developing countries to take Kanat, 2011; Panagiotopoulos et al., 2012). This highlights the
part in e-government projects (Chatfield, Alanazi, & Alanazi, 2015; importance of understanding the multi-faceted factors that may
Chen, Jubilado, Capistrano, & Yen, 2015; Ciborra & Navarra, 2005). influence citizens’ adoption of e-government services. Although
Indeed, the main emphasis of e-government is not the implemen- technology adoption from the user perspective has been exten-
tation of new ICT systems to automate the traditional public sively studied in such contexts as e-commerce and the Internet
service processes or add a new online service delivery channel (Al-Debei & Al-Lozi, 2014; Tung & Rieck, 2005), relatively few
per se, but rather it aims at improving transparency, accountability studies have focused on citizen adoption of e-government services
and governance of the public sector services and in so doing it (Beldad, De Jong, & Steehouder, 2011; Gauld, Goldfinch, &
can improve government performance and create new public Horsburgh, 2010).
value for citizens and businesses (Chatfield & AlHujran, 2007; Unlike adoption and use of various information technologies in
Panagiotopoulos et al., 2012; Wang, 2014). private-sector organizations which are mostly mandatory, citizen
adoption of e-government services is voluntary and often occurs
⇑ Corresponding author. in turbulent socio-political environments such as changes in
E-mail addresses: [email protected], [email protected] (M.M. Al-Debei). political leadership and budget cuts. As such, the adoption of

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.06.025
0747-5632/Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
190 O. Al-Hujran et al. / Computers in Human Behavior 53 (2015) 189–203

e-government services should not only be examined from a Heeks (2003), the major reason behind e-government initiatives
technological perspective; but also a more comprehensive, failure in developing countries is the gap experienced between
integrative approach, which accommodates social, political, and the design and reality of e-government systems implementation.
cultural perspectives, is needed to advance our knowledge in this Accordingly, we believe that it is imperative for the government
domain (Carter, Christian Shaupp, Hobbs, & Campbell, 2012). of Jordan to consider the social, demographic, political, and cultural
Undoubtedly, without a clear and coherent understanding of what influences in the e-government context so as to make it successful.
motivates the public to use e-government services, governments Considering these factors would help countries including Jordan
would not be able to make informed strategic decisions to increase reducing the gap between design and reality of e-government
the e-government adoption and use (Gilbert, Balestrini, & Littleboy, under specific context of each country.
2004; Carter et al., 2012). For Jordan, a better understanding of the factors that influence
Prior research on e-government adoption has largely focused on citizen adoption of e-government services is a critically important
the developed countries. In consequence, little attention was policy issue. Improvements in this domain would be helpful to pol-
received to examine e-government adoption and use in developing icy makers in regards to the design of e-government services. It
nations in general and the Arab nations in particular. This gap is would also be useful to public organizations in improving their ser-
significant given cultural and social characteristics of developing vice delivery processes so as to increase the level of citizens’ adop-
countries including Arab nations differ significantly from those of tion of these services. Moreover, government agencies would find
the Western nations (Baker, Al-Gahtani, & Hubona, 2010; Olasina this valuable in retaining their current users and attracting new
& Mutula, 2015). Due to these differences, it is reasonable to expect ones.
that the factors influencing individuals’ acceptance of technologies
in Arab countries might fundamentally differ from those related to 2.2. E-government adoption
industrialized Western countries, such as those of North America
and Western Europe (Al-Gahtani, 2004). For example, in Saudi Citizen adoption of e-government services is an important issue
Arabia, technology acceptance success factors have been reported for the success of e-government initiatives (Carter & Bélanger,
to differ from those of developed nations (Al-Gahtani, 2004). 2005; Ozkan & Kanat, 2011; Liu et al., 2014). Indeed,
Therefore, by drawing and extending extant Technology e-government services cannot improve public service delivery if
Acceptance Model (TAM), in this paper we aim to investigate the they are not used by the public (Panagiotopoulos & Al-Debei,
influence of socio-technological, political, and cultural factors on 2010). This raises the question of how to increase the level of citi-
citizens’ intention to adopt and use e-government services. zen adoption of such services, especially in Arab countries.
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. In the next However, to date, there has been little research exploring factors
section, relevant literature is reviewed and then the integrative that determine the adoption of e-government services by citizens
research model development and hypotheses are presented and in developing countries (Lin et al., 2011) including the Middle
discussed. In Section 3, research methods employed in this study East (Alomari, Woods, & Sandhu, 2012). A recent review of the
are described. Data analysis and results are presented in e-government literature conducted by Joseph (2013) also showed
Section 4, while in Section 5 a discussion of the results is offered. that there is an urgent need for e-government research studies that
In Section 6, the implications of this research for theory and focus on regions such as the Middle East.
practice are discussed. Finally in Section 7, the conclusions of this Prior research classified extant e-government adoption litera-
research including research limitations and future research ture into two streams (Reddick, 2005). On the one hand, the first
directions are presented. stream studies e-government adoption from the supply-side
perspective, which reflects factors that are important or related
2. Literature review and research model to the supplier of public services (i.e. local, state, or national
government). To date, this perspective explored factors that affect
2.1. E-government in Jordan government organizations’ adoption and implementation of
e-government services (Coursey, Yang, Kasserkert, & Norris,
Jordan is ‘‘one of the rare countries in the Middle East with a 2007; Ferro & Sorrentino, 2010; Norris & Moon, 2005; Norris &
history of commitment to good governance and ICT-related Reddick, 2013; Li & Feeney, 2014). Examples of these factors
initiatives’’ (Ciborra & Navarra, 2005: p.142). In recent years, include organization characteristics (e.g. size, red tape, culture
Jordan’s efforts to provide e-government services to public have and top management support), IT infrastructure, financial
been recognized (Alomari, Sandhu, & Woods, 2010). Although resources, and skilled personnel. On the other hand, the second
e-government program in Jordan is still at the initial stages, stream studies e-government adoption from the demand-side
Jordan has developed relatively advanced e-government service perspective which focuses on ‘‘customers’’ of public services
delivery capabilities in two-way interaction and e-democracy (i.e. citizens). Some scholars have utilized a number of theoretical
(Chatfield & Alhujran, 2009). In addition, the United Nations’ frameworks to examine citizens’ adoption of service provided by
e-government readiness reports ranked Jordan as one of the top the government (e.g. Lin et al., 2011; Al-Hujran et al., 2013; Liu
5 among the Arab countries (UN, 2003, 2005). Nonetheless, et al., 2014; Rana & Dwivedi, 2015). Examples of these factors
e-government in Jordan faces the problem of low usage levels of include trust, risk, security, usefulness, and ease of use, attitude,
these electronic services (Al-Hujran et al., 2013; Al-Jaghoub, quality, satisfaction, and computer experience.
Al-Yaseen, & Al-Hourani, 2010; Mofleh, Wanous, & Strachan, However, while much of the literature has focused on the
2008; Rana & Dwivedi, 2015). More than 85% of Jordanians never supply-side e-government adoption, relatively little is known
used e-government websites and electronic services (Al-Jaghoub about why and under what circumstances the public adopt
et al., 2010). e-government services (Gauld et al., 2010; Reddick, 2005).
Moreover, Jordan mainly relies on global experts to set up Therefore, the focus of this paper is citizen adoption
e-government initiatives (Elsheikh, Cullen, & Hobbs, 2008) and (demand-side) of e-government services. In addition, even though
perceive such initiatives as pure IT projects. This is in most cases there has been some initial efforts to study the citizens’ adoption of
catastrophic as little attention is given to the specific national con- e-government services in Jordan (Alomari et al., 2012; Mofleh et al.,
text of Jordan in terms of culture, politics, social issues, traditions, 2008; Alawneh, Al-Refai, & Batiha, 2013; Al-Hujran et al., 2013),
trust, public values, literacy and gender segregation. According to none have examined how cultural (i.e. national culture) and
 O. Al-Hujran et al. / Computers in Human Behavior 53 (2015) 189–203 191

socio-political (i.e. perceived public value) factors impact Fygenson; 2006), mobile commerce (e.g. Fang, Chan, Brzezinski,
Jordanians decision to adopt e-government services as this study & Xu, 2006), e-learning (e.g. Cheung & Vogel, 2013; Mohammadi,
does. Moreover, we believe that the current study is also significant 2015), mobile government (e.g. Liu et al., 2014; Wang, 2014) and
as knowledge society development requires informed and active e-government (e.g. Al-Hujran et al., 2013; Alomari et al., 2012;
citizens (Lytras and de Pablos, 2011) through their positive attitude Carter & Bélanger, 2005; Lin et al., 2011). TAM theorizes that one’s
toward and actual use of innovative technologies such as behavioral intentions are determined by two specific belief
e-government. Therefore, while our study does not directly address constructs (perceived usefulness, and perceived ease of use).
citizens’ contribution to the knowledge society development, the Davis (1989: p. 320) defined perceived usefulness (PU) as ‘‘the
research findings would have positive implications for government degree to which a person believes that using a particular system
and citizens in developing the knowledge society through the would enhance his or her job performance’’. Perceived ease of
adoption and use of e-government. use (PEOU) refers to ‘‘the degree to which a person believes that
using a particular system would be free of effort’’ (Davis, 1989:
2.3. Research model and hypotheses development p. 320).
The use of TAM in this research provides a number of theoreti-
Previous research have utilized and employed a number of cal advantages. First, it has been extensively tested and validated
theories in order to explain or predict users’ adoption and across different settings. Second, it was subjected to theoretical
acceptance of technologies. This includes Technology Acceptance extensions (Venkatesh & Davis, 2000). Third, TAM has reliable
Model (TAM) (Davis, 1989), Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) instruments and is empirically sound (Chen, Fan, & Farn, 2007).
(Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975), Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) However, the TAM’s fundamental constructs do not fully reflect
(Ajzen, 1985), Innovation Diffusion Theory (IDT) (Rogers, 1995), the specific influences of technological and usage-context factors
Unified Theory for Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) that may influence users’ acceptance (Moon & Kim, 2001)
(Venkatesh, Morris, Davis, & Davis, 2003), and others. The model Therefore, perceived usefulness, and perceived ease of use may
for this study (Fig. 1) is a revision and extension of the most not fully explain users’ attitudes and behavioral intentions toward
widely adopted model in explaining acceptance and adoption of the use of e-government services if not integrated with other cul-
technologies, which is TAM with a set of social, political, and tural and social-related factors. Its fundamental constructs do not
cultural constructs following an extensive literature review so as fully reflect the variety of user task environment and constraints
to end up with a comprehensive and unique model to examine (Fu, Farn, & Chao, 2006). Moreover, TAM does not take into account
the adoption intention of e-government services by Jordanian the human and social factors. Therefore, social and human and
citizens. other factors might be integrated with TAM to improve its predic-
In this study we have viewed e-government as an tive power (Taylor & Todd, 1995).
organizational-level innovation system, but it can be also viewed The original TAM also theorizes the attitude construct plays a
as a regional-level innovation system when e-government central role, because PU and PEOU of a technology will positively
adoption diffuses widely in the society. In this regard, our research influence positive or negative attitude toward the system. The atti-
findings may make an important contribution to regional knowl- tude, in turn, influence the intention to use the system, which pos-
edge management research, which lags behind organizational itively affects the actual use of the system. Also, PU of the system is
knowledge management research (Zhao and de Pablos, 2011). predicted to be positively influenced by PEOU (Davis, Bagozzi, &
Warshaw, 1989). Moreover, TAM theorizes that external variables
2.3.1. Technology Acceptance Model are fully mediated by PU and PEOU (Heijden, 2003). In short, if the
The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) (Davis, 1989) is one of central goal of TAM is to predict IT adoption from an IT perspective,
the various models that IT/IS researchers have used to predict and it can be argued that the TAM is preferable for the reason that it
explain the underlying factors that motivate users to accept and focuses on system design characteristics. TAM predicts whether
adopt new technologies. This model (demonstrated in Fig. 2) is individuals will accept and use a certain system.
an adaptation of the TRA from psychology specifically tailored to However, although the original TAM included the attitude
model user acceptance of Information Technology (IT) (Ajzen & toward behavior as a mediator between the beliefs and the inten-
Fishbein, 1980). TAM has been widely applied in acceptance tion to use, some researchers question the full mediation of beliefs
behavior across a broad range of IT innovations such as by attitude (e.g. Davis et al., 1989; Taylor & Todd, 1995). For
e-commerce (e.g. Gefen, Elena, & Straub, 2003; Pavlou and example, Davis et al. (1989) did not find empirical support for

National Perceived
H8-H12
Culture Public Value
H5
H1
H13-H17
Intention to Use
Attitude H3 E-Government
H4 Services

H6
H2

Perceived Ease
Trust H7 of Use

Fig. 1. The study model.

192 O. Al-Hujran et al. / Computers in Human Behavior 53 (2015) 189–203

Perceived
Usefulness

Behavioral Actual System

External Attitude Intention to Use Use
Variables

Perceived Ease
of Use

Fig. 2. TAM Source: Davis et al. (1989).

the significant role of the attitude as a full mediator. This is voluntary context) differ than employee adoption of such technol-
explained by Davis and Venkatesh (1996: p. 20) as: ‘‘in work set- ogy (i.e. mandatory context). New context may result in several
tings, people may use a technology even if they do not have a pos- types of important changes in adoption theories such as creating
itive attitude (affect) toward using the same, because it may new relationships, changing originally theorized relationships,
provide productivity enhancement (i.e. be useful)’’. Based on this and altering the direction of relationships. Each change can reveal
empirical evidence, the newer variations of TAM, such as TAM2 the breakdown of theories that results in the creation of new
(Venkatesh & Davis, 2000) and the Unified Theory of Acceptance knowledge (Venkatesh et al., 2012). Mandatory users mainly
and Use (UTAUT) (Venkatesh et al., 2003), have dropped the atti- formed their intentions to use the system based on their normative
tude construct. These new models have created a direct path beliefs. These users used the system when they believe that other
between perceived usefulness and intention in order to reflect per- people who are important to them expected them to use it.
formance expectancy impact, regardless of individual’s affective However, voluntary users formed their intentions to use the sys-
reaction toward the new IT/IS (Davis et al., 1989). tem mostly based on their attitude toward using the system
Other studies (e.g. Taylor & Todd, 1995; Thompson, Higgins, & (Hartwick & Barki, 1994). Therefore, in this study we argue for
Howell, 1991) have also reported similar results, and found that the significant role of attitude in predicting the behavioral inten-
attitude may not be an important determinant of an intention to tion to use e-government services, due to the voluntary nature of
use especially in the settings where the intention to use will be using these services. In light of the above literature review, the
formed based on performance considerations (e.g. organizational original TAM which includes the attitude construct was chosen
context), rather than on personal preferences (Taylor & Todd, as a grounding theory for this study.
1995). However, although Davis et al. (1989) asserted that the atti- In addition, prior adoption studies argued that the usefulness
tude did not fully mediate the effect of beliefs on intention, they construct in TAM is inadequate in explaining the adoption of
also concluded that ‘‘more research is needed to identify the con- new IT/IS systems especially non-organizational information sys-
ditions under which attitude mediates the belief-intention link’’ tem where the adopters are consumers and not simply technology
(Davis et al., 1989: p. 999). This motivated Yang and Yoo (2004) users (Al-Debei et al., 2013; Kaasinen, 2005; Kim, Chan, & Gupta,
to revisit this construct. They suggested that attitude has two com- 2007; Lin, Wu, Hsu, & Chou, 2012). TAM was originally developed
ponents: affective and cognitive. The affective component refers to to understand the initial adoption intention of technologies in
‘‘how much the person likes the object of thought, while the cogni- organizational settings. It is important to highlight that those tech-
tive component refers to an individual’s specific beliefs related to nologies are mandatory used by employees for work purposes as
the object of thought’’ (Yang & Yoo, 2004: p. 20). The result of their productivity tools. Therefore, the above-mentioned studies have
study showed that the attitude construct is a significant factor in replaced perceived usefulness by perceived value. While useful-
explaining the IS usage when the cognitive component is involved. ness is the major concern for technology users in organizations,
Similar to Yang and Yoo (2004), many other studies (e.g. for rational consumers it is value maximization (Al-Debei et al.,
Bhattacherjee & Premkumar, 2004; Davis, 1989, 1993; Heijden, 2013; Lin et al., 2012). In the services marketing and IS/IT litera-
2003) support the significant role the attitude construct plays in ture, perceived value has been proposed as a broader concept as
predicting intentions to use IT/IS systems. Furthermore, in volun- it’s not only includes rational utility but also defines the key fea-
tary settings such as e-commerce, e-banking, mobile government tures of the product/service that are valued by the users and other
and e-government, attitude has been shown to have a high corre- stakeholders (Al-Debei et al., 2013). Similarly, e-government is a
lation with behavioral intentions to use (Al-Debei, Al-Lozi, & non-organizational information system, not a productivity tool,
Papazafeiropoulou, 2013; Alomari et al., 2012; Chang, Li, Hung, & and it is used mainly by public in non-work settings. Citizens
Hwang, 2005; Hung, Chang, & Kuo, 2013; Hung, Chang, & Yu, may be viewed as consumers who expect to receive public value
2006; Lin et al., 2011; Pavlou & Fygenson, 2006; Shumaila, from e-government serves usage. Hence, this study also proposed
Gordon, & John, 2007; Susanto & Goodwin, 2013). Pavlou and to replace perceived usefulness by perceived public value con-
Fygenson (2006) argued that although prior TAM research showed struct. Perceived usefulness may not indicate adequate motivation
that the attitude does not fully mediate the effect of beliefs on to acquire e-government services as it usually only measures pro-
intention to use IT, these results should not be generalized to other ductivity and performance issues.
domains such as e-commerce. Other studies (e.g. Hartwick & Barki, The value concept has been frequently used in different litera-
1994; Venkatesh, Thong, & Xu, 2012) also observed the effect of an tures, such as economics, marketing, accounting, finance, strategy,
important difference between voluntary and mandatory users of production, management, and IS/IT (Al-Debei et al., 2013; Woodall,
IT/IS systems. For example, Venkatesh et al. (2012) argued that 2003). Public value concept originated from the public administra-
new contexts such as consumer adoption of a technology (i.e. tion literature (Kelly, Mulgan, & Muers, 2002; Moore, 1995), but
 O. Al-Hujran et al. / Computers in Human Behavior 53 (2015) 189–203 193

started to appear in the e-government context (Chatfield & H5. There is a direct and positive relationship between perceived
AlHujran, 2007; Grimsley & Meehan, 2007; Hellang & Flak, 2012; public value and behavioral intentions to use e-government
Karkin & Janssen, 2014; Karunasena & Deng, 2012; Mills, Carter, services.
& Belanger, 2010; Wang, 2014; Osmani, 2015). According to
Kelly et al. (2002: p. 4), public value refers to ‘‘the value created
by government through services, laws regulation and other 2.3.2. TAM extension: external variables
actions’’. It is a way of capturing all the dimensions of government This study also extends the modified TAM with culture and
performance to assure its relevance to the stakeholders (Kelly trust as external variables so as explain citizens’ adoption of
et al., 2002). In e-government, the stakeholders include citizens, e-government services. A discussion related to each external vari-
business enterprises, other governments, and government employees. able is provided below.
Chatfield and AlHujran (2007: p. 2) explained the public
value concept as follows: ‘‘public value is predicated on these 2.3.2.1. Trust. Trust is emerging as a potentially important factor
stakeholders’ preferences, because only the stakeholders -not the leading to IT acceptance. Given the uncertain and dynamically
government-, can determine what is truly of value to them. changing environment of the Internet, trust was theorized as a
However, public value is also predicated on the new capability of direct determinant of behavioral intentions. Several definitions of
e-government to understand the different stakeholders’ needs trust have been found in the literature. Barney and Hansen
and provide services they value, thereby creating public value that (1994: p. 176) define trust as ‘‘the mutual confidence that no party
justifies and legitimizes the sustained government spending on to an exchange will exploit another’s vulnerabilities’’. Trust is
e-government. In other words, the legitimacy of e-government as important in online environments because of the associated risk
a whole largely depends on how well it creates public value by (Langton & McKnight, 2006). Therefore, prior e-government
producing the outcomes, services and trust that are aligned with research has highlighted the importance of trust as a determinant
e-government strategic objectives’’. Although it is a significant of citizen adoption of e-government services (e.g. Alomari et al.,
challenge for government agencies, citizens expect to get improved 2012; Carter & Bélanger, 2005; Chen et al., 2015; Schaupp,
government information and services, good governance, trans- Carter, & McBride, 2010; Susanto & Goodwin, 2013; Warkentin,
parency, and accountability through e-government services provi- Gefen, Pavlou, & Rose, 2002). A review of the e-government adop-
sion (Grimsley & Meehan, 2007). In fact, e-government is often tion literature conducted by Titah and Barki (2006) also showed
seen as an effective means to create public value for citizens that trust is among the most significant factors affecting
through providing convenient channels to access public services, e-government adoption, since citizens must trust the government
saving time and money, and promoting greater interaction as well as the enabling technologies. However, citizens usually
between citizens and their governments (Karunasena & Deng, have concerns about information privacy and misuse of their per-
2012). Creating public value to citizens and meeting their needs sonal information when this information is shared over the
should therefore guide the operations of public organizations on Internet (Carter & Bélanger, 2005). Traditionally, it is suggested
the provision of public services (Moore, 1995). that trust could be categorized into trust in the entity providing
Surprisingly, there are few studies which have suggested the the service (i.e. party trust) and trust in the technology through
link between public value and e-government and mobile govern- which the service is provided (i.e. institution-based trust)
ment adoption (e.g. Gilbert et al., 2004; Osmani, 2015; Wang, (McKnight, Choudhury, & Kacmar, 2002; Pavlou, 2003; Belanger
2014). Although they have not used the term perceived public and Carter, 2008; Schaupp et al., 2010). This traditional view of
value, Gilbert et al. (2004) found that citizen willingness to use trust is adopted in this study. Trust of government that provides
e-government services is increased if they perceived that the elec- public services and trust of the electronic channel (i.e. the
tronic delivery of public services is saving their money and time Internet) through which these services are delivered is required
(i.e. economic value and time value). Saving citizens’ time and to encourage citizens to engage in e-government services (Carter
money is a subset and main elements of the perceived public value & Bélanger, 2005; Schaupp et al., 2010). Carter and Bélanger
concept. In addition, perceived public value includes citizen (2005: p. 9) emphasize that ‘‘citizens must have confidence in both
perceptions about the enhancements in the accessibility and con- the government and the enabling technologies’’ for successful
venience of government services and information (Alhujran, e-government solutions.
2009). E-government, through its various channels of service Indeed, the integration of trust with TAM variables has its own
delivery, provides citizens with timely information and services theoretical and empirical support (Aloudat, Michael, Chen, &
in a more convenient and easier way which satisfies citizens’ Al-Debei, 2014; Gefen et al., 2003; Liébana-Cabanillas,
needs, and allows them to improve their efficiency and complete Sánchez-Fernández, & Muñoz-Leiva, 2014; Pavlou, 2003).
tasks in anytime and anywhere (Osmani, 2015; Wang, 2014). Liébana-Cabanillas et al. (2014) found that trust is an antecedent
Based on the above discussion and assumptions of the original of the ease of use based on the fact that trust in electronic systems
TAM, the following hypotheses are proposed: reduces users’ need to understand, control and survey the situa-
tion, making their task easier and free of efforts. The impact of trust
H1. There is a direct and positive relationship between perceived on perceived public value has been also confirmed by different
public value and attitude toward using e-government services. scholars (e.g. Grimsley & Meehan, 2007; Sirdeshmukh, Singh, &
Sabol, 2002). However, although trust and public value are essen-
tial variables in service science and e-government literatures, and
H2. There is a direct and positive relationship between perceived most researchers agree they are related (e.g., Mills et al., 2010;
ease of use and attitude toward using e-government services. Wang, 2014), few studies tried to empirically examine their rela-
tionships. Trust can increase outcome expectations based on the
benefits of a trustworthy relation (Belanche, Casaló, Flavián, &
H3. There is a direct and positive relationship between attitude
Schepers, 2014). If the service provider cannot be trusted to behave
and behavioral intentions to use e-government services.
in accordance with the user’s confident beliefs, then there is no
reason why she or he should anticipate to gain any benefits or
H4. There is a direct and positive relationship between perceived values from using the service (Pavlou, 2003). In addition, higher
ease of use and perceived public value of e-government services. level of trust is assumed to reduce uncertainty which in turn will
194 O. Al-Hujran et al. / Computers in Human Behavior 53 (2015) 189–203

create a positive perspective regarding the value of the services 2011; Warkentin et al., 2002; Zhao, 2013). However, it can be
and provide expectations of an acceptable level of performance noted that there is a scarcity of empirical and rigorous research
(Aloudat et al., 2014). In the light of the above discussion, trust is about the impact of national culture on e-government adoption
postulated to positively influence perceived ease of use and per- in both developed and developing countries which encourages fur-
ceived public value of e-government services and, therefore, the ther research in this domain. The absence of considering cultural
following hypotheses could be proposed: consequences in e-government adoption may lead to the failure
of the adoption process (Nurdin, Stockdale, & Scheepers, 2010).
H6. There is a direct and positive relationship between trust and The Arab world is considered as one of the most complex cul-
perceived public value of e-government services. tural and social systems in the world (Straub, Loch, & Hill, 2001).
Hofstede‘s dimensions of culture suggest that Arab countries differ
significantly from Western cultures such as the U.S. The values of
the Arabian culture normally displays a close-knit social structure.
H7. There is a direct and positive relationship between trust and
Such a social structure usually raises conformance pressures on its
perceived ease of use of e-government services.
members (Sidani & Thornberry, 2009). These unique characteristics
of the Arabian culture may limit the applicability and negatively
2.3.2.2. Culture. Introducing technology to a new context requires affect the validity of existing theoretical models and frameworks
proper considerations of important cultural differences (Srite & that are immersed in Western cultures. Perceptions, attitudes,
Karahanna, 2006). In some countries cultural differences can act and behavioral intentions of users in the Arab world are very much
as a barrier to ICT adoption and it is therefore essential to consider influenced by important others including family, friends, and
the cultural settings of these countries while formulating strategies colleagues. Arabian users’ perceptions, attitudes, and behavioral
for increasing ICT usage (Erumban & De Jong, 2006). There are intentions are also influenced by social norms and values and other
different levels of culture; for example, national cultural level aspects related to religion (Hu et al., 2014). However, despite high
and organizational cultural level. In our research paper, we direct levels of investment, the process of e-government adoption in Arab
our attention toward national culture as we address the countries, including Jordan, is slow and the low level of usage
e-government adoption problem at the national level. Hofstede among public is common (Al-Hujran et al., 2013; Hamner &
(1997: p. 21) defines national culture as ‘‘the collective program- Al-Qahtani, 2009; Shafi & Weerakkody, 2009). Therefore, the
ming of the mind which distinguishes the members in one human complex cultural system of the Arab world provides a rich context
group from another’’. Although there are major concerns regarding to determine the extent to which the national culture can be used
Hofstede’s national culture framework (Ford, Connelly, & Meister, to explain citizen’s adoption of e-government services in this
2003), Leidner and Kayworth (2006) found, after an extensive unique cultural context.
literature review of national culture studies, that over 60% related As it is widely recognized and accepted, Hofstede’s framework
research used one or more of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. This of culture has been chosen in this study as a theoretical back-
is indeed an objective measure showing the strength and impact of ground to assess the impact of national culture on e-government
this framework. Hofstede (1997) identified five dimensions of adoption in Jordan. However, previous research suggested that
cultural variation. These dimensions have been conceptually the influence of national culture dimensions on individuals’ inten-
defined (Hofstede, 1997) as follows: tions to use IS/IT might be mediated by perceived usefulness
(which is replaced by perceived public value in this study) and ease
 Power Distance (PD): the extent to which the less powerful of use constructs (Akour et al., 2006; Hill, Loch, Straub, &
members of group or society accept and expect that power is El-Sheshai, 1998; Straub, 1994). Thus the following hypotheses
unequally distributed; were posed:
 Uncertainty Avoidance (UA): the extent to which the members of
group or society feel threatened by unknown situations; H8. There is a direct and positive relationship between uncertainty
 Individualism vs. Collectivism (IC): the extent to which individu- avoidance and the perceived public value of e-government
als are integrated into groups; services.
 Masculinity vs. Femininity (MF): the extent to which gender roles
are assigned in a culture;
 Long-Term vs. Short-Term Orientation (LSO): a society’s prefer- H9. There is a direct and positive relationship between power dis-
ence to be more forward looking or future oriented. tance and the perceived public value of e-government services.

The link between IT/IS adoption and culture has been widely
H10. There is a direct and positive relationship between masculin-
recognized. Many studies were conducted to examine the relation-
ity/femininity and the perceived public value of e-government
ship between adoption of IT/IS and both national and organiza-
services.
tional culture (e.g. Al-Gahtani, 2004; Twati, 2006; Carter &
Weerakkody, 2008; Baker et al., 2010; Hu, Al-Gahtani, & Hu,
2014; Olasina & Mutula, 2015). These studies highlighted the H11. There is a direct and positive relationship between individu-
importance of culture, and how it is linked to the success of IT/IS alism/collectivism and the perceived public value of e-government
adoption and use. Researchers also explored the impact of the services.
national culture on TAM variables (e.g. Akour, Alshare, Miller, &
Dwairi, 2006; Al-Hujran, Al-dalahmeh, & Aloudat, 2011; Srite &
H12. There is a direct and positive relationship between
Karahanna, 2006; Twati, 2006; Veiga, Floyd, & Dechant, 2001).
long-term/short-term orientation and the perceived public value
However, these studies provided inconsistence results regarding
of e-government services.
how the cultural dimensions influence the core variables of TAM.
In e-government domain, prior literature also suggests that the
national culture is significantly correlated with e-government H13. There is a direct and positive relationship between uncer-
readiness (Khalil, 2011), e-government development (Zhao, 2013) tainty avoidance and the perceived ease of use of e-government
and citizen adoption of e-government services (Al-Hujran et al., services.
 O. Al-Hujran et al. / Computers in Human Behavior 53 (2015) 189–203 195

H14. There is a direct and positive relationship between power Femininity’’ (MF), ‘‘Long-Term vs. Short-Term Orientation’’ (LSO).
distance and the perceived ease of use of e-government services. The theoretical constructs were operationalized using validated
items drawn from prior research. The TAM scale of PEOU was mea-
sured using items adopted from Davis (1989) and Davis et al.
H15. There is a direct and positive relationship between masculin-
(1989). TAM scales of ATT were adopted from Taylor and Todd
ity/femininity and the perceived ease of use of e-government
(1995). BI items were adopted from Malhotra and Galletta (1999)
services.
and Pavlou (2003). Culture items were adopted from Hofstede
(1980, 1991) and Srite and Karahanna (2006). The measurement
H16. There is a direct and positive relationship between individu- of trust (TR) was adopted from Carter and Bélanger (2005). PPV
alism/collectivism and the perceived ease of use of e-government items were adopted from Pura (2005). All items were measured
services. using a five-point Likert-type scale ranging from ‘‘Strongly agree’’
to ‘‘Strongly disagree’’. Table 1 lists the questionnaire items.
H17. There is a direct and positive relationship between
long-term/short-term orientation and the perceived ease of use 3.3. Sample profile
of e-government services.
The descriptive statistics of the sample showed that 61.7% of the
respondents were male and 38.3% were female. Respondents aged
3. Research methodology between 20 and 30 years formed the largest age group and repre-
sented 68.5% of the sample. The majority of respondents were
3.1. Instrument and data collection bachelor degree students (i.e. undergraduate) studying either in
the field of business or in the field of Information Technology (IT)
This is a quantitative cross-sectional study that utilized the and represented 79.2% of the sample. Most of respondents
survey questionnaire as the main instrument for data collection. (81.9%) have more than 3 years of computer experience and their
Hence, a self-completion, well-structured questionnaire was devel- usage of Internet can be characterized as frequent and common.
oped based on previous literature and was then distributed to a Nevertheless, respondents clearly indicated their lack of experi-
random sample where participation was completely voluntary. ence in e-commerce activities and also revealed that their access
Sekaran (2003) stresses the importance of choosing the question- to e-government services was significantly less frequent than their
naire language that approximates the level of understanding of access and usage of Internet in general. The details are shown in
the respondents. Given that the majority of the Jordanians are Table 2.
communicating in Arabic language, questionnaire items of the
study have been translated into Arabic language. The English ver- 4. Data analysis and results
sion of the questionnaire has been translated into Arabic language
by two independent translators. The Arabic version which has been This study utilizes the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM)
translated by the first translator has been translated back to approach with Partial Least Square (PLS) as an analysis method.
English by the second translator. The same was repeated to the PLS has been widely used for theory testing and validation. PLS
second translator’s version. The two versions in both languages examines the psychometric properties and provides appropriate
have been compared to resolve any differences. The final version evidences on whether relationships might or might not exist
following the amendments was then used for data collection. (Fornell & Larcker, 1981). In this study, we performed data analysis
Prior research showed that educated Jordanian citizens are the in accordance with a two-stage methodology (Anderson & Gerbing,
early adopters of the Internet (Al-Jaghoub & Westrup, 2003), which 1988) using SmartPLS 2.0 M3. The first step was to test the content,
suggests that they may likely be early adopters and users of convergent, and discriminant validity of constructs using the mea-
e-government in Jordan. In addition, Jordan has a young popula- surement model, while the second step was to test the structural
tion, according to the government statistics, 70% of Jordanian citi- model and hypotheses.
zens is under the age of 30 (Jordan’s Department of Statistics,
2008). Therefore, the questionnaire surveys were distributed to a
4.1. Measurement model
total of 1500 participants; internet cafe users and university stu-
dents who were randomly chosen from 4 different universities in
First, we assessed the reliability and validity of the measure-
Jordan. A total of 988 surveys were returned, achieving the return
ment instrument using content, reliability, and convergent validity
rate of 65.9%. Out of the 988 surveys collected, 13 were considered
criteria. The content validity of our survey instrument was estab-
unusable because they had many missing response items. The
lished in two ways. First, the constructs along with their measures
remaining 975 surveys were used in the analysis. Of the 975
which are used in this study were already validated in previous
respondents, 413 (42.4%) were e-government information and ser-
studies as they were all adopted from the existing literature.
vices adopters, while the remaining 57.6% were non-adopters. This
Second, the results of the pre-test we undertook with
means that they only filled in the background information. Only
subject-matter experts assured content validity of the survey
the e-government adopters’ responses (a sample size of 413) were
instrument. For reliability of the scale, Cronbach’s alpha, which is
used for testing the research hypotheses.
a common method used to measure the reliability and internal
consistency of scales, was used (Cronbach, 1970). Hair et al.
3.2. Measurement scales (2006) suggested that the reliability of the scale is generally
accepted if the value of Cronbach’s alpha for each construct is equal
The constructs of interest in this study were ‘‘Behavioral or greater than 0.70. The constructs included within the study’s
Intention’’ (BI), ‘‘Attitude’’ (ATT), ‘‘Perceived Public Value’’ (PPV), model exhibit a high degree of internal consistency as the values
‘‘Perceived Ease of Use’’ (PEOU), ‘‘Trust’’ (TR), , and ‘‘Culture’’ of Cronbach’s alpha ranged from 0.70 (BI) to 0.86 (MF) as shown
(CUL). Following Hofstede (1997), the five dimensions of culture in Table 3.
were utilized which are: ‘‘Uncertainty Avoidance’’ (UA), ‘‘Power A Composite Reliability (CR) and Average Variance Extracted
Distance’’, ‘‘Individualism vs. Collectivism’’ (IC), ‘‘Masculinity vs. (AVE) tests were conducted to measure convergent validity.
196 O. Al-Hujran et al. / Computers in Human Behavior 53 (2015) 189–203

Table 1
Measurement scales.

Constructs Items Measures

Uncertainty Avoidance UA1 It is important to have job requirements and instructions spelled out in detail so that people always know what they are
expected to do
UA2 Rules and regulation are important because they inform workers what the organization expects of them
UA3 People should avoid making changes when their outcomes are uncertain
UA4 Order and structure are very important in a work environment
Power Distance PD1 Managers should be careful not to ask the opinions of subordinates too frequently, otherwise the manager might appear to be
weak and incompetent
PD2 Manager should make most decisions without consulting subordinates
PD3 Employees should not question their manager’s decisions
PD4 Manager should not ask subordinates for advice, because they might appear less powerful
PD5 In general, the manager, not the employees should have the last word
Masculinity/Femininity MF1 It is preferable to have a man in a high level position rather than a woman
MF2 Men usually solve problems with logical analysis; women usually solve problems with intuition
MF3 Solving organizational problems usually requires an active forcible approach which is typical of men
Individualism/Collectivism IC1 Individual rewards are not as important as group welfare
IC2 Group success is more important than individual success
IC3 I think it’s more important to give priority to group interests rather than personal ones
Long-Term vs. Short-Term LSO1 Respect for tradition hampers performance
Orientation LSO2 The exchange of favors and gifts is not necessary to excel
LSO3 Upholding one’s personal image makes little difference in goal achievement
Trust TR1 E-government portal and/or Ministry’s website(s) have enough safeguards (e.g. security policy) to make me feel comfortable
using it to access government services
TR2 I feel assured that legal and technological structures adequately protect me from any problems on using e-government portal
and/or Ministry’s website(s)
TR3 In general, e-government portal and/or Ministry’s website(s) are now a robust and safe environment to access government
services
TR4 In general, I think I can trust e-government portal and/or Ministry’s website(s)
TR5 In my opinion, e-government portal and/or Ministry’s website(s) are trustworthy
Perceived Public Value PPV1 Using e-government portal and/or Ministry’s website(s) to access government services is an efficient way to manage my time
PPV2 I value the convenience of using e-government portal and/or Ministry’s website(s) to access government services
PPV3 Using e-government portal and/or Ministry’s website(s) to access government services increase the government transparency
PPV4 Using e-government portal and/or Ministry’s website(s) to access government services increase the government
accountability
PPV5 Overall, I believe that using e-government portal and/or Ministry’s website(s) to access government services provide good
public value
Perceived Ease of Use PEOU1 Learning how to use e-government portal and/or Ministry’s website(s) to access government services is easy for me
PEOU2 I find it easy to use e-government portal and/or Ministry’s website(s) to find what I want
PEOU3 My interaction with e-government portal and/or Ministry’s website(s) to access government services is clear and
understandable
PEOU4 E-government portal and/or Ministry’s website(s) is flexible to interact with
PEOU5 Overall, I find using e-government portal and/or Ministry’s website(s) to access government services easy to use
Attitude ATT1 Using the e-government portal and/or Ministry’s website(s) to access government services is a good idea
ATT2 I like the use of e-government portal and/or Ministry’s website(s) to access government services
ATT3 Using the e-government portal and/or Ministry’s website(s) to access government services would be pleasant
Behavioral Intention BI1 I intend to use the e-government portal and/or Ministry’s website(s) to access government services frequently
BI2 I predict that I should use the e-government portal and/or Ministry’s website(s) to access government services in the future

Fornell and Larcker (1981) suggested that the value of CR for each 4.2. Structural model
construct must exceed 0.70 while the value of the AVE must
exceed 0.50 for the convergent validity to be assured. The CR and In addition to PLS Algorithm, the bootstrapping procedure was
AVE values for the constructs included in the study model are all used and we selected 413 cases, 5000 samples, and the no sign
above acceptable levels. Moreover, the standardized path loadings changes option to evaluate the significance of the path coefficients
for all indicators were above 0.55 and thus they are all significant (Hair, Sarstedt, Ringle, & Mena, 2012). The results of the PLS-SEM
(Falk & Miller, 1992), except MF3 and LSO2. Given that the path analysis show, as in Table 5, the structural model estimation and
loading for MF3 was the weakest, so it was deleted first and the evaluation of the formulated hypotheses. Results indicated that
model were reassessed again. Thereafter and given that the only out of the five cultural constructs, only uncertainty avoidance
left item with path loading lower than 0.55 is LSO2, it was finally (b = 0.16, p 6 0.001; b = 0.18, p 6 0.001, respectively) and power
deleted and the model final assessment were measured. As such, distance (b = 0.17, p 6 0.05; b = 0.13, p 6 0.05, respectively) have
content validity, reliability, and convergent validity of the significant and direct effects on both perceived public and per-
measurement instrument are all satisfactorily met in this research. ceived ease of use. Results also revealed that trust is also a major
As for discriminant validity, it is actually established when the predictor of perceived public value and perceived ease of use
square root of the AVE from the construct is greater than the (b = 0.07, p 6 0.01; b = 0.24, p 6 0.001, respectively). Further, per-
correlation shared between the construct and other constructs in ceived ease of use was found to be one of the major predictors of
the model (Chin, 1998). The discriminant validity of the measure- perceived public value (b = 0.46, p 6 0.001). The results also indi-
ment instrument is confirmed in this study given that the square cated that attitude is a direct function of both perceived public
root of the AVE from each construct is larger than all other value and perceived ease of use (b = 0.40, p 6 0.001; b = 0.13,
cross-correlations with other constructs (see Table 4). p 6 0.001, respectively). Finally, it was found that perceived public
 O. Al-Hujran et al. / Computers in Human Behavior 53 (2015) 189–203 197

Table 2 Table 3
Sample profile. Results of reliability and convergent validity tests.

Frequency Percentage (%) Constructs Items Factor AVE CR Cronbach

loading a
Gender Male 255 61.7
Female 158 38.3 Uncertainty Avoidance UA1 0.680 0.620 0.866 0.795
UA2 0.851
Age Less than 20 51 12.3
UA3 0.827
20–30 283 68.5
UA4 0.781
31–40 57 13.8
41–50 17 4.1 Power Distance PD1 0.612 0.615 0.887 0.843
More than 50 5 1.2 PD2 0.861
PD3 0.850
Education Bachelor 347 84.0
PD4 0.853
Postgraduate 66 16.0
PD5 0.712
Field of study Business 218 52.8
Masculinity/Femininity MF1 0.960 0.877 0.934 0.864
IT 149 36.1
MF2 0.912
Others 46 11.1
MF3 0.072
Computer experience Less than 3 Years 75 18.2 (Deleted)
3–5 Years 104 25.2
Individualism/ IC1 0.880 0.649 0.847 0.737
More than 5 Years 234 56.7
Collectivism IC2 0.791
Internet usage Few times monthly 40 9.7 IC3 0.739
Several times monthly 73 17.7
Long-Term vs. Short- LSO1 0.927 0.672 0.800 0.846
Few times weekly 83 20.1
Term Orientation LSO2 0.375
Several times weekly 105 25.4
(Deleted)
Several times daily 112 27.1
LSO3 0.695
E-commerce usage Never used 330 79.9
Trust TR1 0.741 0.583 0.875 0.822
Once a month 67 16.2
TR2 0.735
Few times monthly 8 1.9
TR3 0.776
Several times weekly 3 0.7
TR4 0.796
Few times weekly 4 0.10
TR5 0.768
Few times daily 1 0.2
Perceived Public Value PU1 0.771 0.541 0.855 0.787
E-government usage Once a month 246 59.6
PU2 0.790
Few times monthly 99 24.0
PU3 0.721
Several times Weekly 32 7.7
PU4 0.746
Once a day 11 2.7
PU5 0.643
Several times daily 25 6.1
Perceived Ease of Use PEOU1 0.728 0.614 0.888 0.842
PEOU2 0.746
PEOU3 0.800
PEOU4 0.830
PEOU5 0.810
value has no direct significant effect on behavioral intention and
Attitude ATT1 0.839 0.706 0.878 0.791
that attitude directly and positively influences behavioral inten-
ATT2 0.870
tions to use e-government services (b = 0.63, p 6 0.001) and thus ATT3 0.809
attitude fully mediates the relationship between perceived public
Behavioral Intention BI1 0.902 0.766 0.868 0.701
value and behavioral intention to use e-government services. BI2 0.848
As in Table 6, The R2 value for each endogenous latent construct
(i.e. perceived ease of use, perceived public value, attitude, and
behavioral intention to use e-government services) demonstrate 5. Discussion
an acceptable prediction level in empirical research. The coefficient
of determination R2, which is the central criterion for the structural Despite the increasing provision of public services electroni-
model’s assessment (Klarner, Sarstedt, Hoeck, & Ringle, 2013), has cally, the adoption of these services by citizens is still limited espe-
a high value of 0.402 for this study’s key target construct; i.e. cially in developing countries. Therefore, it is necessary to
behavioral intention to use e-government services. This value of understand in more detail which factors help increase the inten-
R2 which is above 25% demonstrates a highly acceptable prediction tion to use these e-government services not only from a theoretical
level in empirical research (Gaur & Gaur, 2006; Griffith, 1996). perspective, but also from managerial and empirical perspectives.
Indeed, the high R2 proves the model’s predictive validity (Hair To explore this issue, this study has modified TAM model by sub-
et al., 2012). We support the prior finding through the use of Q2 stituting the perceived usefulness construct with perceived public
predictive relevancy measure (Stone, 1974). The obtained Q2 val- value and integrated the revised model with other important and
ues, after running the blindfolding procedure (Chin, 1998) with related external factors. The present paper is instrumental in
an omission distance D = 8, were (0.13) for perceived ease of use, expanding the general body of knowledge by supporting some
(0.22) for perceived public value, (0.16) for attitude, and (0.30) previous findings, as well as raising possible concerns about other
for behavioral intention. All of the Q2 values are well above zero; previous results. The study also strongly supports the value-based
indicating the predictive relevance of the PLS path model. Finally Technology Acceptance Model, in which perceived public value
we measured the f2 values (i.e. effect size) for perceived public plays an important role in determining citizens’ attitude toward
value, and perceived ease of use on attitude as well as for perceived e-government services.
public value and attitude on behavioral intention. As shown in As hypothesized, perceived public value and attitude were sig-
Table 6, the effect size for perceived ease of use on attitude is small, nificant predictors of usage intentions, and together, accounted for
the collective effect size of perceived public value on attitude and 40.2% of the variance in the intention to use e-government services
behavioral intention is medium, and the effect size of attitude on (R2 = 0.402). An interesting insight coming from in our research is
behavioral intention is large. that citizens’ intention to use e-government services is most
198 O. Al-Hujran et al. / Computers in Human Behavior 53 (2015) 189–203

Table 4
Descriptive analysis and discriminant validity.

Mean SD UA PD MF IC SLO TR PPV PEOU ATT BI

UA 4.24 0.67 1.00
PD 2.45 1.00 0.20 1.00
MF 2.76 1.24 0.05 0.40 1.00
IC 4.02 0.86 0.20 0.04 0.22 1.00
SLO 3.93 0.77 0.26 0.04 0.02 0.31 1.00
TR 3.50 0.77 0.10 0.18 0.06 0.09 0.18 1.00
PPV 3.96 0.64 0.35 0.12 0.002 0.12 0.11 0.29 1.00
PEOU 3.70 0.72 0.25 0.10 0.02 0.10 0.14 0.37 0.56 1.00
ATT 4.18 0.71 0.47 0.12 0.04 0.20 0.16 0.17 0.47 0.36 1.00
BI 4.03 0.73 0.40 0.10 0.01 0.11 0.02 0.18 0.37 0.33 0.63 1.00

Note: The square roots of the constructs’ AVE values are shown in the diagonal line (in bold); non-diagonal elements are latent variable correlations.

Table 5 intentions to use the system mostly based on their attitude toward
Hypotheses testing results. using this system (Hartwick & Barki, 1994). Therefore, we need to
Hypotheses Beta (b) t value p value be cautious in generalizing the results of previous TAM studies to a
H1: PPV ? ATT 0.40 6.24*** 0.00
different context such as e-government, where the adoption and
H2: PEOU ? ATT 0.13 6.93*** 0.00 use of ICTs and the electronic channel is strictly voluntary and in
H3: ATT ? BI 0.63 19.28*** 0.00 fact competing against alternative channels such as the traditional
H4: PEOU ? PPV 0.46 8.94*** 0.00 face-to-face government agency offices, mail and telephone
H5: PPV ? BI 0.09 1.69 0.09
H6: TR ? PPV 0.07 2.79** 0.01
services. In such voluntary adoption and use settings (e.g.
H7: TR ? PEOU 0.24 4.23*** 0.00 e-commerce, e-banking, and e-government), attitude has been
H8: UA ? PPV 0.16 4.29*** 0.00 shown to have a high correlation with behavioral intentions to
H9: PD ? PPV 0.17 2.07* 0.04 use (Chang et al., 2005; Hung et al., 2006, 2013; Pavlou &
H10: MF ? PPV 0.09 0.93 0.35
Fygenson, 2006; Susanto & Goodwin, 2013). For example, in line
H11: IC ? PPV 0.004 0.14 0.89
H12: LSO ? PPV 0.05 0.90 0.37 with our results, but based on a different theoretical grounding
H13: UA ? PEOU 0.18 2.91*** 0.00 (i.e. the theory of planned behavior), Hung et al. (2013) found that
H14: PD ? PEOU 0.13 2.35* 0.02 the citizens’ intention to use m-government services is mainly
H15: MF ? PEOU 0.08 1.54 0.12
determined by their attitude toward using these services. Based
H16: IC ? PEOU 0.007 0.14 0.89
H17: LSO ? PEOU 0.02 0.41 0.68 on this discussion, it can be argued that the attitude construct
should be included as a central variable that may likely influence
*
p 6 0.05.
**
citizen adoption and use of e-government services under the
p 6 0.01.
***
p 6 0.001. typical condition of voluntary adoption policy that currently
prevails in the growing e-government development worldwide.
Consistent with previous TAM research, this study hypothe-
Table 6 sized that there is a positive relationship between perceived ease
Results of R2, Q2, and f2. of use and citizens’ attitude toward using e-government. Findings
Endogenous latent variables R2 (%) Q2 f2 of this study demonstrated empirical support for this hypothesis.
This finding is consistent with previous TAM research that tests
Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU) 41.3 0.13 0.008
Perceived Public Value (PPV) 22.3 0.22 0.16 and validates the consistent relationships between perceived ease
Attitude (ATT) 23.9 0.16 0.45 of use and attitude (e.g. Chang et al., 2005; Davis, 1989; Venkatesh
Behavioral Intention (BI) 40.2 0.30 – & Davis, 2000). Our findings have also empirically confirmed that
perceived public value has a significant relationship with attitude,
which is consistent with extant service science literature that
dominantly influenced by their attitude toward using these argued that customer attitude was the result of customer percep-
services (b = 0.63, p < 0.001), and it is not directly influenced by tion of value received (Ducoffe, 1996; Kwun, 2011; Teo, Oh, Liu,
perceived public value (b = 0.09, p > 0.1). This indicates that & Wei, 2003). The value to public should therefore guide the oper-
attitude is a powerful mediator between beliefs (perceived public ations of public agencies on the delivery of public service. This is
value and perceived ease of use) and intention to use because the ultimate goal of e-government programs is to create
e-government services. This empirical evidence contradicts with value for citizens (Moore, 1995). Public organizations can create
the assertion made in prior research which argues that the inclu- public value for citizens through assuring high efficiency of their
sion of attitude is not meaningful (Davis et al., 1989; Taylor & operation, providing convenient channels to access public services,
Todd, 1995; Venkatesh & Davis, 2000; Venkatesh et al., 2003). saving time and money, and promoting greater interaction
Their assertion was justified by Davis and Venkatesh (1996, p. between citizens and their governments (Karunasena & Deng,
20) as ‘‘in work settings, people may use a technology even if they 2012). In short, perceived public value and perceived ease of use
do not have a positive attitude (affect) toward using the same were shown to be significant determinants of citizens’ attitude
because it may provide productivity enhancement (i.e. be useful)’’. toward using e-government services, suggesting that the govern-
In contrast, this research suggests otherwise. This contradiction ment should make e-government services more valuable and
may be explained by the voluntary nature of citizen adoption of usable. For example, governments could achieve this by increasing
e-government services. The difference between voluntary and citizens’ awareness about the value of using e-government ser-
mandatory users of IT/IS systems was observed in prior research vices, providing e-government and ICT training workshops, and
on IS/IT adoption (Hartwick & Barki, 1994). Mandatory users refining IT/IS systems selections to meet different citizens’ needs.
mainly formed their intentions to use the system based on their Results also indicated perceived ease of use had a significant
normative beliefs. Voluntary users, on the other hand, formed their positive impact on perceived public value, suggesting that the
 O. Al-Hujran et al. / Computers in Human Behavior 53 (2015) 189–203 199

easier the e-government service is to use, the more beneficial and 1995). Therefore, the newer variations of TAM, such as TAM2
valuable citizens would perceive it. E-government provides citi- (Venkatesh & Davis, 2000) and the Unified Theory of Acceptance
zens with timely and personalized information and services in a and Use (UTAUT) (Venkatesh et al., 2003), have dropped the atti-
more convenient and easier way, which satisfies users’ tude construct. In contrast, in the present study we argued the sig-
multi-level information needs, and helps users improve efficiency nificant role of attitude as a predictor of usage intentions in
and complete tasks in anytime and anywhere (Wang, 2014) and voluntary contexts such the e-government. An interesting finding
therefore creating value for them. However, our finding is inconsis- coming from our research is that citizens’ intention to use
tent with results obtained by Wang (2014). Although Wang’s study e-government services is most dominantly influenced by their atti-
initially hypothesized the significant effect of perceived ease of use tude toward using these services. This study will help us to com-
on public value, findings of his study indicated otherwise. He prehend the difference of measuring IS adoption between
justified this result by arguing that previous literature focused on voluntary setting of e-government and other information systems
pre-adoption stage while his study emphasis on post-adoption in mandatory settings. Third, this study has shown the importance
where users already have some experience about IS. Accordingly of ‘‘perceived public value’’ in explaining citizens’ intentions and
and based on the results of Wang (2014) and the results of the behavior. Prior to our study, only limited number of research stud-
current study, we can induce that perceived ease of use is not an ies examined the role of public value in IT/IS success in govern-
important predictor of attitude in post-adoption stages, while it ments’ context (e.g. Wang, 2014), but not in the context of
is very significant in the initial adoption stage as in the case of citizens adoption of e-government services. Based on our extensive
the current study. search of the literature, our study appears to be among the first to
This study also hypothesized that there are positive relation- empirically explore and confirm the significant impact of public
ships between trust and perceived public value and perceived ease value in determining citizens’ attitude, intentions, and behavior.
of use. Findings of this study demonstrated empirical support for
these two hypotheses. The results of the study indicated that trust 6.2. Implications for practice
has significant impacts on perceived public value, which in turn
influences citizens’ attitude to adopt e-government services. The The primary objective of this study was to identify key factors
possible justification is that if the e-government services are not that are likely influence citizen adoption of e-government services
trustworthy, there is no reason why the citizens should anticipate in developing countries. The study has fulfilled this objective. The
getting any value from using them. In addition, the results showed results of this study have significant managerial implications for
that trust has a positive impact on perceived ease of use. The government policy makers, government agencies, and system
possible explanation for that is trust makes using e-government developers who are working on developing e-government services.
services effortless, by reducing the need for checking every detail This research provides them with a practical and communicable
related to security and privacy. This finding is consistent with pre- checklist of cultural, social, political and technological factors,
vious IT/IS adoption research (Liébana-Cabanillas et al., 2014; which are seamlessly integrated; and that cover the citizens’ per-
Pavlou, 2003). spectives. This checklist should be considered as the cornerstone
Furthermore, the findings showed that only one cultural dimen- for any e-government project.
sion (i.e. uncertainty avoidance) has a significant positive impact The citizens’ survey showed that the dimensions – uncertainty
on perceived ease of use and perceived public value. The other four avoidance; trust; perceived public value; perceived ease of use;
cultural dimensions: power distance, individualism, masculinity, and the attitude – contribute significantly to citizen adoption of
and long-term orientation, has no discernible impacts on the citi- e-government services in Jordan. Since Jordan and the other Arab
zens’ beliefs. These findings are consistent with previous research countries are facing the problem of low-level of citizen adoption
(Warkentin et al., 2002). In their study, Warkentin et al. (2002) of e-government services, the research outcomes are believed to
proposed that of the five cultural dimensions, power distance assist e-government officials and policy makers from Jordan and
and uncertainty avoidance are the most likely to differentiate any other country with similar characteristics, to better position
e-government adoption and use. These findings suggest that it is their strategies to encourage faster and more efficient adoption
important to consider the differences and uniqueness of the coun- of these services. The outcomes of this study suggested that
try’s specific cultural values when developing e-government e-government officials need to pay attention to the dominant cul-
services. ture. For example, by providing the necessary training to alleviate
anxiety could lead to better acceptance of IT/IS applications
(Al-Gahtani, 2004) such as e-government.
6. Implications and limitations Also, government agencies should provide services that are easy
to use. Carter and Bélanger (2005) and Susanto and Goodwin
6.1. Implications for theory and research (2013) suggested different ways to increase perceived ease of
use. One is to provide online tutorials through the e-government
This study makes a significant contribution to e-government websites to illustrate how citizens can use and transact with these
adoption research from different perspectives. First, this study service. Government agencies should also improve help and search
examines the impact of national culture on e-government take facilities in their websites to enable citizens to effectively find the
up from a citizen perspective. National culture may influence citi- relevant information. Information on how to use the service can be
zens’ expectations, experiences, preferences and their attitudes provided as a brochure, a web page, and a ‘help’ feature on the
toward e-government. However, there is a lack of empirical and e-government websites. In addition, citizens’ feedback about
rigorous research addressing the importance of national culture e-government websites should be elicited and analyzed. This will
dimensions in e-government adoption (Zhao, 2013). This study enable government agencies to redesign their websites to present
contributes to a better understanding of how some national culture e-government services and information in a way that is easy for
dimensions affects e-government adoption, and how to address the citizens to use. In addition to these suggested methods, the find-
cultural issue. Second, there were inconsistent results regarding ings of this study showed that trust and culture had a positive
the role of attitude as mediator between users’ beliefs and inten- impact on perceived ease of use. Therefore, it is important for gov-
tion to use IT/IS systems, some researchers question the full medi- ernment agencies to provide trustworthy services to the public,
ation of beliefs by attitude (e.g. Davis et al., 1989; Taylor & Todd, employ the necessary training to alleviate anxiety, and to
200 O. Al-Hujran et al. / Computers in Human Behavior 53 (2015) 189–203

demonstrate the public value that the citizens may gain by using voluntary settings such as citizen adoption of e-government ser-
e-government services. vices due to its considerable influence on the usage intentions. In
Given the dominant effect of perceived public value, it is also light of these findings, researchers and policy makers should con-
important for the government agencies to incorporate useful infor- sider the impact of these factors in order to increase the existing
mation and services into their websites. The provision of low-level of citizen adoption of e-government services in the
up-to-date and accurate information at an appropriate level of Arab world including Jordan.
detail through e-government channels is valued. Also, these agen-
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Transformation or incremental change? Public Administration Review, 73(1), information technology: Toward a unified view. MIS Quarterly, 27(3),
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Nurdin, N., Stockdale, R., & Scheepers, H. (2010). Examining the role of the culture of Venkatesh, V., Thong, J. Y., & Xu, X. (2012). Consumer acceptance and use of
local government on adoption and use of e-government services. In E- information technology: Extending the unified theory of acceptance and use of
government, e-services and global processes (pp. 79–93). Berlin Heidelberg: technology. MIS Quarterly, 36(1), 157–178.
Springer. Wang, C. (2014). Antecedents and consequences of perceived value in Mobile
Olasina, G., & Mutula, S. (2015). The influence of national culture on the Government continuance use: An empirical research in China. Computers in
performance expectancy of e-parliament adoption. Behaviour & Information Human Behavior, 34, 140–147.
Technology, 34(5), 492–505. Warkentin, M., Gefen, D., Pavlou, P., & Rose, G. (2002). Encouraging citizen adoption
Osmani, M. (2015). Examining the antecedents of public value in e-government of e-government by building trust. Electronic Markets, 12, 157–162.
services. Doctoral Dissertation. Brunel University London. Woodall, T. (2003). Conceptualizing ‘Value for the Customer’: An attributional,
Ozkan, S., & Kanat, I. E. (2011). E-Government adoption model based on theory of structural and dispositional analysis. Academy of Marketing Science Review, 12,
planned behavior: Empirical validation. Government Information Quarterly, 1–41.
28(4), 503–513. Yang, H., & Yoo, Y. (2004). It’s all about attitude: Revisiting the technology
Panagiotopoulos, P., & Al-Debei, M. M. (2010). Engaging with citizens online: acceptance model. Decision Support Systems, 38(1), 19–31.
Understanding the role of ePetitioning in local government democracy. Internet, Zhao, F. (2013). An empirical study of cultural dimensions and e-government
Politics, Policy, 16–17. development: Implications of the findings and strategies. Behaviour &
Panagiotopoulos, P., Al-Debei, M. M., Fitzgerald, G., & Elliman, T. (2012). A business Information Technology, 32(3), 294–306.
model perspective for ICTs in public engagement. Government Information Zhao, J., & de Pablos, P. O. (2011). Regional knowledge management: The
Quarterly, 29(2), 192–202. perspective of management theory. Behaviour & Information Technology, 30(1),
Pavlou, P. (2003). Consumer acceptance of electronic commerce: Integrating trust 39–49.
and risk with the technology acceptance model. International Journal of
Electronic Commerce, 7(1), 69–103. Dr. Omar Al-Hujran is an associate professor in the Department of Management
Pavlou, P., & Fygenson, M. (2006). Understanding and predicting electronic Information Systems and Technology at Princess Sumaya University for Technology
commerce adoption: An extension of the theory of planned behavior. MIS (PSUT). He got his bachelor’s degree in computer science from Mu’tah University,
Quarterly, 30(1), 115–143. Jordan, Master of Science in computing from University of Technology/Sydney, and
Pura, M. (2005). Linking perceived value and loyalty in location-based mobile PhD degree in Information Systems from Wollongong University, Australia. His
services. Managing Service Quality, 15, 509–538. work has been presented in several international Journals conferences such as
Rana, N. P., & Dwivedi, Y. K. (2015). Citizen’s adoption of an e-government system: Information Technology for development Journal, Electronic Journal of E-Government,
Validating extended social cognitive theory (SCT). Government Information European Conference on e-Government, International Conference on e-Learning,
Quarterly, 32(2), 172–181. e-Business, Enterprise Information Systems, and e-Government, ACS/IEEE
Reddick, C. (2005). Citizen interaction with e-government: From the streets to International Conference on Computer Systems and Applications, and European
servers? Government Information Quarterly, 22(1), 38–57. Conference on Mobile Government. His research interests include e-government and
Rogers, E. M. (1995). Diffusion of innovations (4th ed.). New York: Free Press. e-government adoption in developing countries.
Schaupp, L. C., Carter, L., & McBride, M. E. (2010). E-file adoption: A study of US
taxpayers’ intentions. Computers in Human Behavior, 26(4), 636–644. Dr. Mutaz M. Al-Debei is an Associate Professor of Information Systems and
Sekaran, U. (2003). Research method for business: A skill building approach. New York: Computing at the University of Jordan (UJ). He also served as an ICT chief consultant
John Wiely and Sons. at The National Center for Security and Crises Management in Jordan from 2010 till
Shafi, A. S., & Weerakkody, V. (2009). Understanding citizens’ behavioural intention 2015. Al-Debei earned his PhD from Brunel University London in Information
in the adoption of e-government services in the state of Qatar. In ECIS (pp. Systems and Computing. His research has been published in learned Journals and
1618–1629). conferences such as European Journal of Information Systems, Decision Support
Shumaila, Y., Gordon, R., & John, G. (2007). Technology acceptance: A meta-analysis Systems, Computers in Human Behavior, Internet Research, Government Information
of the TAM: Part 2. Journal of Modelling in Management, 2(3), 251–280. Quarterly, Telematics and Informatics, IEEE Technology and Society, and Business
Sidani, Y. M., & Thornberry, J. (2010). The current Arab work ethic: Antecedents, Process Management Journal. Al-Debei’s research interests include business models,
implications, and potential remedies. Journal of Business Ethics, 91(1), 35–49. mobile data services design, e-government, and social networking sites.
Sirdeshmukh, D., Singh, J., & Sabol, B. (2002). Consumer trust, value, and loyalty in Furthermore, Al-Debei has received many research awards such as best paper
relational exchanges. Journal of Marketing, 66(1), 15–37. awards from UKAIS (2008) and IFIP 8.2 (2010), the prestigious Vice Chancellor’s
Srite, M., & Karahanna, E. (2006). The role of espoused national cultural values in Prize for Doctoral Research from Brunel University in 2010, and the Distinguished
technology acceptance. MIS Quarterly, 679–704. Researcher Award from The University of Jordan in 2012. Al-Debei is also a Certified
Stone, M. (1974). Cross-validatory choice and assessment of statistical predictions. Information Systems Auditor (CISA) and a Certified Information Security Manager
Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series B (Methodological), 111–147. (CISM).
Straub, D. W. (1994). The effect of culture on IT diffusion: E-Mail and FAX in Japan
and the US. Information Systems Research, 5(1), 23–47. Dr. Akemi Takeoka Chatfield is Head of E-government & E-Governance Research
Straub, D., Loch, K., & Hill, C. (2001). Transfer of information technology to the Arab Group, and a senior lecturer in IT at University of Wollongong. She was funded in
world: A test of cultural influence modeling. Journal of Global Information 2010 by Kyoto University Disaster Prevention Research Institute, as visiting
Management, 9(4), 141–172. Professor in Disaster Governance under the Extreme Weather Conditions Research
Susanto, T. D., & Goodwin, R. (2013). User acceptance of SMS-based e-government Program. Dr. Chatfield has received a funding by the 2010 World Summit on
services: Differences between adopters and non-adopters. Government E-Governance to be held in November 2010 in Taiwan as an expert speaker. She was
Information Quarterly, 30(4), 486–497. funded in 2009 by University of Wollongong to collaborate with the New South
Taylor, S., & Todd, P. (1995). Understanding information technology usage: A test of Wales State Emergency Service (SES) and NEC Australia and design a RFID-enabled
competing models. Information Systems Research, 6(2), 144–176. enterprise system for improved visibility in emergency asset management and
Teo, H. H., Oh, L. B., Liu, C., & Wei, K. K. (2003). An empirical study of the effects of governance. Her research interests include IT benefits realization, e-government
interactivity on web user attitude. International Journal of Human-Computer impact, and RFID/ad hoc sensor network/GIS-enabled government-community
Studies, 58(3), 281–305. disaster management and coordination. She published in the top information
 O. Al-Hujran et al. / Computers in Human Behavior 53 (2015) 189–203 203

systems journals, including Journal of Management Information Systems (ERA A⁄), 2011 HICSS (globally ranked as the best international conference on information
European Journal of Information Systems (ERA A⁄), Journal of Information Systems systems).
Frontier (ERA A), Communications of the ACM (ERA A), Information Technology for
Development Journal, and Electronic Journal of E-Government. Dr. Chatfield co-chaired Dr. Mahmoud Migdadi is an associate professor in the Department of Management
the Mini-Track on RFID simulation modelling at the 2009 AMCIS in San Francisco. Information Systems and Technology at Princess Sumaya University for Technology
She also co-edited in 2009 and 2010 two special issues on RFID in Business Process (PSUT). He got his bachelor’s degree in computer science from Yarmouk University,
Management Journal and Pacific Asian Journal of Information Systems. She will Jordan, MBA from Johnson & Wales University, USA, and PhD degree in Information
co-chair the E-Government Mini-Track on Emerging E-Government Topics at the Systems from Wollongong University, Australia.