Citizens and mobile government: an empirical analysis of the antecedents and consequences of mobile government usage
| Author | Steven Birkmeyer,Bernd W. Wirtz,Paul F. Langer |
| Date | 01 December 2021 |
| Published date | 01 December 2021 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0020852319862349 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
International
Review of
Administrative
Sciences
Citizens and mobile
government: an
empirical analysis of
the antecedents and
consequences of mobile
government usage
Bernd W. Wirtz
German University of Administrative Sciences
Speyer, Germany
Steven Birkmeyer
German University of Administrative Sciences
Speyer, Germany
Paul F. Langer
German University of Administrative Sciences
Speyer, Germany
Abstract
Mobile government services have significantly gained importance for practitioners and
researchers. However, there is a lack of empirical investigation into the diffusion of
mobile government among users. Based on the technology acceptance model and
related literature, we derived a structural model providing the central ante cedents of
citizens’ usage intention of mobile government services and its effect on word-of-
mouth intention. Findings from a sample of 161 German public administration students
largely supported the model. Only the anticipated effect of perceived interactivity on
intention to use was not supported.
Corresponding author:
Bernd W. Wirtz, German University of Administrative Sciences Speyer, Chair for Information and
Communication Management, Freiherr-vom-Stein-Str. 2, 67346 Speyer, Germany.
Email: ls-wirtz@uni-speyer.de
International Review of Administrative
Sciences
!The Author(s) 2019
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/0020852319862349
journals.sagepub.com/home/ras
2021, Vol. 87(4) 836–854
Points for practitioners
The study provides a comprehensive model of mobile government applications’ success.
Professionals who develop mobile government services should focus on usefulness,
usability and a high level of service coverage, as well as privacy and security aspects,
to increase citizens’ intention to use the respective service. Interactivity has not been
found to be a significant factor for citizens’ intention to use mobile government serv-
ices. The study also suggests that citizens will recommend the services to others if they
intend to use it in the first place.
Keywords
eGovernment, empirical analysis, mobile government, technology acceptance model,
word of mouth
Introduction
The constant access to the Internet through mobile devices such as cellular/mobile
telephones, laptop computers, tablets, wearables and wireless Internet infrastruc-
ture constitutes a new information environment, which can be used to provide
more and different types of public services (Amdani and Choudhari, 2014).
At the same time, public institutions can reduce costs and improve their service
quality (Madden et al., 2013), as well as add another service channel (Wirtz and
Langer, 2017). Moreover, studies show that the public use of mobile channels
enhances citizen participation and collaboration (Sandoval-Almazan and Gil-
Garcia, 2012). However, there are also several challenges associated with mobile
government (mGov): citizens might be reluctant to seek government services due to
their negative impression of public institutions (Shareef et al., 2014) or their secu-
rity concerns (Winkler et al., 2011).
In this study, mGov is considered to be a part of eGovernment. mGov reflects
the different applications of mobile devices in the public administration context.
The emergence of smartphones and respective technologies (Global Positioning
System (GPS), mobile messaging, face recognition, voice messaging, heat sensors,
etc.) is a basis for specific public services: public location-based services (such as
emergency warnings and public transformation planning) or user identification
(through fingerprints or near-field communication technologies).
In fact, ‘mobile government is considered to be one of the most important
trends in e-Government research’ (Rosenbaum et al., 2018: 198), which is why
researchers see a general need for further research (Khanesha and Jani, 2016).
To improve mGov services, citizens’ intention towards mobile communication
factors should be explored (Hung et al., 2013), which is particularly needed con-
cerning the calls for empirical investigation into the diffusion of mGov among
users (Liu et al., 2014) and the limited research on factors that affect the accep-
tance of mGov services (Althunibat et al., 2014).
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Wirtz et al.
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