Adoption of e-government services at different maturity levels: a qualitative study in India
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/DPRG-09-2021-0116 |
| Published date | 21 December 2022 |
| Date | 21 December 2022 |
| Pages | 15-39 |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information policy |
| Author | Rajiv Kumar,Amit Sachan,Arindam Mukherjee |
Adoption of e-government services at
different maturity levels: a qualitative
study in India
Rajiv Kumar, Amit Sachan and Arindam Mukherjee
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this study is to determine the factors that enable citizens to adopt
e-government servicesat different maturity levels: information,two-way communication, transactionand
politicalparticipation.
Design/methodology/approach –The study uses a grounded approach by conducting semi-
structuredinterviews.
Findings –The study reveals thatthe factors influencing the adoption of e-governmentservices vary at
different levels. It identifies27 influencing factors. In total, 13 of these factors influence adoption at the
information level; 13 at the two-way communication level; 25 at the transactional level; and 16 at the
political participation level. Auxiliary facilities, connectedness, corruption avoidance,transparency and
fairness, customer support and forced adoption, not commonly discussed as influencing factors for
e-governmentadoption in the extant literature, havebeen revealed in this study.
Research limitations/implications –This study uses qualitative research and rather than
generalization, the focus is explicitly on obtaining an in-depth understanding. Although the sampling
used is sufficientfor the purpose of this study and allows reasonableconclusions to be drawn; however, it
cannot be consideredrepresentative of a vast country like India. Academicians and informationsystems
researcherscan use these findings for furtherresearch.
Practical implications –This study advances the understanding of e-government adoption. The
findingshave potential implications for public administratorsand policymakers in successfully designing,
developingand implementing e-governmentservices at different maturity levels.
Originality/value –Existinge-government adoption theories are of limitedscope and do not capture and
specify the complete essence of citizens’ adoption characteristics at different levels of e-government
services.Hence, a theoretical gap exists, whichthis study aims to fill.
Keywords E-government, Adoption, Influencing factors, Maturity levels, Qualitative, India
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
The application of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to deliver public
services is referred to as e-government (Muir and Oppenheim, 2002;UN and ASPA, 2001).
E-government has tremendous potential to deliver efficient and effective government
services to citizens (Gajendra and Lijuan, 2015;Garcı
´a Alonso et al.,2020;Mustaf et al.,
2020). It offers many benefits and has realized its potential around the world to become an
integral part of government (Weerakkodyet al.,2011). E-government can help to build trust
by improving transparency and reducing corruption in the delivery of public services
(Mensah, 2020;Weerakkody et al., 2011). Citizens can now experience e-government
services through several devices that have become an integral part of daily life, including
desktop computer, laptop, smart-phones and tablets (Kumar et al.,2017). In India, over the
years, multiple levels of government have undertaken a large number of e-government
Rajiv Kumar is based at IT
and Systems Area, Indian
Institute of Management
Kashipur, Kashipur, India.
Amit Sachan is based at
Operations Management
Area, Indian Institute of
Management Ranchi,
Ranchi, India.
Arindam Mukherjee is
based at Information
Systems and Business
Analytics Area, Indian
Institute of Management
Ranchi, Ranchi, India.
Received 18 November 2021
Revised 7 April 2022
17 September 2022
Accepted 25 October 2022
DOI 10.1108/DPRG-09-2021-0116 VOL. 25 NO. 1 2023, pp. 15-39, ©Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 2398-5038 jDIGITAL POLICY, REGULATION AND GOVERNANCE jPAGE 15
initiatives, made efforts toimprove the delivery of public services and simplified the process
to access government services [Department of Electronics and Information Technology
(DeitY), 2022]. The government has formulated the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) to
take a holistic view of e-governance initiatives across the country (National Portal of India,
2022). With this objective in mind, to enable easy, fast and reliable access to government
services, along with the goal of maintainingtransparency, large-scale digitization of records
has taken place. Also, to benefit the masses, a massive countrywide infrastructure
development project has been undertaken to reach the remotest of villages. The ultimate
objective of NeGP is to bring public services closer to the home of the citizens. NeGP
originally comprising of 27 mission mode projects (MMPs) and eight components, which
were later extended to 31 MMPs by augmenting four more projects relating to education,
public distribution system, health and postal services (National Portal of India, 2022). In the
context of NeGP, MMPs have clearly defined objectives, scopes, implementation timelines
and milestones, as well as measurable outcomes and service levels [Department of
Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY), 2022]. To promote e-Governance in a
holistic manner, various initiatives and projects have been undertaken to develop core and
support infrastructure.
Despite the diffusion and substantial growth and development of e-government all over the
world, a large number of people are still not inclined toward its use (Rosenbaum et al.,
2018). Research has been conducted on e-government (Ahmad et al.,2013;Al-Shafi and
Weerakkody, 2010;Carter et al.,2016;Mustaf et al.,2020;Rana and Dwivedi, 2015;
Rehman et al.,2012; Viswanath Venkatesh et al.,2014;Wang and Liao, 2008) to identify the
factors that impact its implementation and diffusion. However, there is scope for further
research to explore e-government adoption, particularly in developing countries where
huge investments have been made in e-Gov solutions throughout the lengthand breadth of
public services rendered by the respective governments. This is particularly true for India,
where the government is taking several steps to motivate its citizens to adopt e-government
services (Today, 2015).
Researchers, consulting firms and international organizations have proposed several
e-government maturity stage models to assess e-government services (Fath-allah et al.,
2014). According to Shareef et al. (2011), the level of service maturity of e-government is
“the pattern of service that a government develops, successively enhances interactivity,
and delivers for stakeholders’ acceptance and usage with upgrading of technological
sophistication and functional characteristics.” There are different service offerings for
different maturity levels. The involvement of technology is also different for various levels of
service maturity. Therefore, there is a need to understand the adoption criteria at different
levels.
In recent research, Shareef et al. (2011) explored the adoption factors of e-Gov at the static
and interaction levels. At the static stage, perceived awareness, perceived ability to use
and perceived functional benefitswere found to influence adoption. At the interaction stage,
perceived awareness, perceivedability to use, perceived information quality and perceived
trust were found significant for adoption. AkhtarShareef et al. (2014) identified the adoption
criteria of citizens for e-government services at the transaction level.Their study reveals that
the ability to use and the assurance to use are critical for the adoption of e-government at
the transaction level. Rehman et al.(2012) proposed a research model to measure citizens’
intention of adoption at the information and transaction levels. They found information
quality and awareness to be significant variables for getting information. For the transaction
level, perceived ease of use, awareness, service quality and transaction security were
found to be significant. Rana et al. (2015) brought to light the adoption behavior of Indian
citizens for transactional e-government services. They identified perceived usefulness,
perceived trust, superior’s influence,self-efficacy, facilitating conditions, attitude, subjective
norms and perceived behavioral control as the determinants for e-government adoption at
PAGE 16 jDIGITAL POLICY, REGULATION AND GOVERNANCE jVOL. 25 NO. 1 2023
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