A Review of the Factors Affecting User Satisfaction in Electronic Government Services

Even after more than a decade of intensive research work in the area of electronic government (e-government) adoption and diffusion, no study has yet undertaken a theoretical evaluation of research related to 'e-government satisfaction'. The purpose of this study is to undertake a comprehensive review of the literature related to e-government satisfaction and adoption with a particular focus on the most critical factors and their manifested variables that influence user satisfaction in e-government. Usable data relating to e-government research were collected from 147 papers identified from the Scopus database and by manually identifying relevant articles from journals dedicated to e-government research such as Electronic Government, an International Journal (EGIJ), International Journal of Electronic Government Research (IJEGR) and Transforming Government: People, Process, and Policy (TGPPP). A meta-analysis of existing e-government studies found that the majority of the construct relationships demonstrated a significant range of average summative correlation, and effect size, but the influence of perceived ease of use, effort expectancy on behavioural intention, behavioural intention on use behaviour, and perceived trust on risk were still found to be non-significant. A broader analysis of e-government satisfaction and adoption research seems to reflect that although a large number of theories and theoretical constructs were borrowed from reference disciplines such as Information Systems, e-commerce and public administration, their utilisation by e-government researchers appears to be largely random in approach.