Building a Measurement Framework for m-Government Services

Introduction

In recent years, the rapid advances that have been made in wireless/mobile platforms for Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have seen the emergence of so-called ‘mobile government’ (‘m-government’) services—that is, electronic government (e-government) services delivered to citizens and businesses via wireless/mobile communication channels. Such m-government services offer important benefits to both providers and users. For the provider, overhead costs are reduced in regions where wired infrastructure is lagging behind the reach of mobile telephony networks; moreover, the personalised nature of mobile technologies enables the delivery of customised services to specific users or targeted groups. For users, the enhanced availability of mobile services facilitates the optimal use of time and resources, and reduces the risks of missed deadlines. However, despite these and other benefits, there are also important constraints on the utility of m-government services. These include limited screen size, limited computing power, reliance on batteries, and the cost of online access via mobile telephony. As long as home/office users find it easier and cheaper to download and utilise some e-government services (such as large application forms) at their desktop, m-government will remain complementary to e-government (Borucki, Arat, & Kushchu, 2005).

Nevertheless, the proliferation of m-government services continues to extend e-government beyond the desktop, and as it does so it is becoming increasingly apparent that there is a need to develop a coherent measurement framework for such mobile services. Because m-government is essentially complementary to e-government, the models, methods, and frameworks developed for e-government measurement are also relevant to m-government. The proposed measurement framework in this study is therefore based on related e-government work. The proposed framework is comprised of the following elements: (i) a classification of m-government services in terms of their relative importance for mobile users; (ii) a system for determining service sophistication; and (iii) indicators to measure service attributes in the most effective and efficient way. These three dimensions of existing e-government frameworks are therefore adapted for measurement of m-government services.

The remainder of this paper is organised as follows. The next section presents the definition, scope, and typical services of m-government. It also focuses on how m-government services are measured and describes some of the most important frameworks/models for those services. The following section presents the methodology of this study, while the section of research illustrates how the proposed framework for m-government services is tested and verified according to the findings of a survey. The paper concludes with a summary of the framework and suggestions for future research work in this area.