Abstract
This chapter investigates those factors affecting the user adoption of the Intranet Portal of the Hong Kong Government, a.k.a., Central Cyber Government Office (CCGO). The authors conducted a survey study in 2004 and they interviewed some of the users to collect their feedbacks on the user adoption of CCGO based on the premises of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Based on the results of their survey and interviews, the authors noted that civil servants of Hong Kong demonstrated strong reluctance to adopt CCGO.
TopBackground
To improve the internal communication within the government, the Hong Kong Government has developed an Intranet portal, i.e. the Central Cyber Government Office (CCGO), to facilitate internal communication and information flow. The CCGO used the Government Communication Network (GCN) to disseminate internal information, which had around 50,000 users when we conducted our study in 2003/2004, i.e. around 1/3 of the civil service workforce, and is now developed into a system, which provides a wide range of e-services and disseminates information within the government (HKG, 2009). With more knowledge on the user acceptance of the CCGO, researchers, government officers, and the management of private sectors can gain insights on how to develop a more user-focused Intranet portal for their users. Our research was developed based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), which is the most common model used for analyzing user adoption of IT projects (Davis, 1989; Davis et al., 1989). In particular, we would like to address the following three research questions:-
- (1)
Does perceived usefulness (PU) affect the user adoption of Government Intranet portal?
- (2)
Does perceived ease of use (PE) affect the user adoption of Government Intranet portal?
- (3)
Does subjective norm (SN) affect the user adoption rate of Government Intranet portal?
Key Terms in this Chapter
Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA): Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) reflects the relationship between Behavioral Intention (BI) (as dependent construct) with Attitude towards Act or Behavior (AB) and Subjective Norm (SN). Prior research has shown that that BI = ß1AB + ß2SN (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975).
Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB): Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) reflects the relationship between Behavioral Intention (BI) and Behavior (as dependent constructs) with Attitude Towards Act or Behavior (AB), Subjective Norm (SN) and Perceived Behavioral Control (Ajzen, 1991).
Perceived Ease of Use (PE): Perceived Ease of Use (PE) is one of the independent constructs in the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). It is “the degree to which a person believes that using a particular system would be free of effort” (Davis, 1989).
Technology Adoption Model (TAM): Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is an information systems (IS) research model, which is developed by Davis (1989). The original TAM has three constructs, viz., two independent contructs, Perceived Usefulness (PU), and Perceived Ease of Use (PE), and the dependent construct, User Acceptance (UA). While both independent constructs have positive impacts on the dependent construct, PE also has positive impact on PU.
Subjective Norm (SN): Subjective Norm (SN) is one of the independent constructs of the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA). It is “the person’s perception that most people who are important to him think he should or should not perform the behavior in question” (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975).
Electronic Government (e-Government): Electronic Government (e-Government) is referring to the use of information technology to provide government services online, which aims to provide faster and better services for stakeholders. It can be divided into four basic categories, viz. Government to Citizen (G2C), Government-to-Business (G2B), Government-to-Government (G2G), and Government-to-Employee (G2E).
Perceived Usefulness (PU): Perceived Usefulness (PU) is one of the independent constructs in the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). It is “the degree to which a person believes that using a particular system would enhance his/her job performance” (Davis, 1989).