The Influence of Electronic Word of Mouth (eWOM) Communications on Citizens' Adoption of Mobile Government Services

The Influence of Electronic Word of Mouth (eWOM) Communications on Citizens' Adoption of Mobile Government Services

Isaac Kofi Mensah, Deborah Simon Mwakapesa
Copyright: © 2022 |Pages: 21
DOI: 10.4018/IJEGR.298025
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Abstract

Electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) communications is considered an important force determining the purchasing intentions of consumers in the context of e-commerce and marketing fields but few studies have examined this important element of eWOM communications in the context of mobile government. Therefore, this study is aimed at filling this gap by integrating eWOM communications into the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to explore its direct impact on the adoption of mobile government services among Chinese citizens (college students). The analysis was conducted by the use of SPSS through regression analysis. The results showed that all the research hypotheses were statistically supported. Specifically, eWOM mobile government communication was found to significantly predict the perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and the behavioral intention to adopt mobile government services. The implications of these findings on the development of mobile government services are thoroughly discussed.
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Introduction

Mobile government is emerging as the new frontier for governments around the world to provide public services as compared to the traditional form of e-government. The application of mobile technologies such as mobile phones and wireless networks to deliver both informational and transactional government public services is termed mobile government (m-government). M-government is an attempt by governments and stakeholders to provide quality public services to its citizens and the general public (Al-khamayseh et al., 2006; Mandari & Koloseni, 2021). Mobile government is defined as the strategic application and implementation of all forms of appropriate wireless and mobile technologies, services, applications, and devices or internet-based applications through smartphones and tablets to enhance the interaction and provision of services to citizens, businesses, and government agencies (Albesher & Stone, 2016; Kushchu & Kuscu, 2003; Rahmadany & Achmad, 2021). Mobile government is developing faster as an alternative or supplementary to e-government because of the high rate of internet penetration, availability of mobile handsets, and mobile network technologies like the 4G and 5G networks.

Scholars have considered mobile government as a subset, complementary, extension, and value addition and technological evolutionary state of e-government (Kumar & Sinha, 2007; Kushchu & Kuscu, 2003; Shareef et al., 2012; Trimi & Sheng, 2008). E-government is defined as the application of information and communication technologies to enhance the delivery of governmental administrative procedures and public services (Zefferer, 2015). The delivery of public services through the traditional e-government system can reach a limited number of people as compared to the mobile government which offers wireless means to deliver government services and hence has the potential to reach the wider society. This element of reachability feature of mobile government services in addition to timely dissemination of information, ubiquity, low technology literacy requirement, personalized information delivery, and emergency management are some of the vital advantages associated with mobile government (Liu et al., 2014; Shahzad et al., 2020) as a good alternative to e-government. Mobile government can be implemented to offer public services in areas such as fire-fighting, law enforcement, emergency medical services, health and transportation, education, border and coastal security, immigration, disaster response, and management (Easton & Tepper, 2002; Kuscu et al., 2008; Kushchu & Kuscu, 2005; Rahmadany & Achmad, 2021). Mobile government services can ensure instant messages and quicker information collection, value-added mobile transactions, faster information dissemination, and exchange (Kushchu & Kuscu, 2005; Shahzada et al., 2021). These unique characteristics of mobile government make it the most desirable form of technology as compared to the e-government platform.

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