Results of survey from a snowball convenient sample of Kyrgyz respondents (N = 216) showed that employees of private sector are more likely to use government websites than those of government employees themselves and level of knowledge about security issues directly related to intention to use of Kyrgyz government websites. Specifically, higher level of knowledge about security issues leads less likely to use government websites. Factors such as ease of use and usefulness, relative advantage of using web sites, and compatibility with respondents' lifestyle have also great impact on intention to use government web sites. Image, given by using internet technologies to communicate with government also has a direct relation on people's intention. The findings also suggest about the gender role in if and under circumstances men and women tend to use government websites. The findings are explained via the investigation of diffusion of innovation model and technology acceptance model in relation to use of government websites in the context of Kyrgyz Republic.
TopIntroduction
Growing internet penetration in wider developing countries including in Central Asia has heightened the need for examination of electronic government and e-government services and how such services lead to efficiency in the public sector. For example, there are studies about factors that influence consumer adoption of e-government services in the United Arab Emirates (Rodrigues, Sarahdeen & Balasubramanian, 2016), use of e-government services in various contexts and countries such as Turkey (Kurfali, Arifoglu, Tokdemir & Pacin, 2017), Jordan (Zawaideh, 2017), Estonia (Bjorklund, 2016), Thailand (Gunawong & Gao, 2017), Indonesia (Choi, Park, Rho, & Zo, 2016), Pakistan (Rehman, Kamal, & Esichaikul, 2016), India (Kumar, Sachan, & Mukherjee, 2017) as well as comparative study of the United States and the United Kingdom (Carter, Weerakkody, Philips & Dwivedi, 2016), comparative study of the democratic and non-democratic countries (Stier, 2015) just to name a few. However, Kyrgyzstan and other countries in Central Asian region still remain under-reported or lacking in scholar studies (Freedman & Shafer, 2012) in part because internet and other new communication technologies are at their nascent stages in the region. Assuming that internet is relatively new to the region, Freedman and Shafer (2012) argue that “there is no shortage of potential research [in wider Central Asia]…, given globalization and the rapid changes in communications technologies, such efforts would be particularly timely” (p. 124). To fill this gap, the study focuses on examination of seven research questions related to e-government services in the context of Central Asian Kyrgyz Republic. Specifically, this chapter examines citizens’ intention to use government websites based on their perceived usefulness and ease of use.