Factors Influencing Citizen Adoption of E-Government in Developing Countries: The Case of Jordan

Introduction

The rapid growth of the Internet has had a transformational effect on society. It has enabled many governments around the world to efficiently deliver information and services to their stakeholders: citizens, businesses, employees and government agencies. E-government development very often aims to improve public service delivery capability, as well as a public administration’s governance, transparency and accountability (Chatfield & Alhujran, 2009). Davison et al., (2005) argue that e-government became an opportunity to rethink how the government provides services, and how it links them in a way that is convenient for a user’s needs, not only to put forms and services online. According to Bassanini (2002) e-government is also a mean of empowering people, changing the way people access public services, by promoting transparency and accountability in governmental action of acquiring knowledge (Al-shqairat & Al tarawneh, 2011).

However, despite the governments' growing investment in electronic services, at both national and local government levels, e-government research results present evidence of low-level citizen adoption of e-government services (Al-Jaghoub et al., 2010; Al-shqairat & Al tarawneh, 2011; Belanger & Carter, 2008; Choudrie & Dwivedi, 2005; Hamner & Al-Qahtani, 2009; Fu et al., 2006; Kumar et al., 2007; Lin et al., 2011; Wang, 2003). Citizens are still more likely to prefer the use of the traditional methods (e.g. in-person visits, phone calls) to interact with their governments (Belanger & Carter, 2008). Due to this prominent problem, several researchers, such as Gilbert et al., (2004); Gupta et al., (2008); Fu (2006); Kumar et al., (2007); and Tung and Rieck (2005) suggest the need for more research in the area of e-government to help governments improving their understanding of the issues that influence citizen adoption of e-government services.