EVALUATING USER SATISFACTION IN AN E-GOVERNMENT INITIATIVE: RESULTS OF STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELING AND FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSIONS

A major domain of e-government research has been the examination of information delivery to citizens. These services involve communications and transactions between government, at various levels, and citizens. The rise of these services has led to a concurrent need to develop models of citizen satisfaction with e-governmental services. This research aims to contribute to this need by devising such a model—EGOVSAT —and using it to evaluate citizen satisfaction. This model includes various performance and emotional measures. To explore its applicability, the model is applied to online Advanced Transportation Information Systems (ATIS), a form of government-to-citizen online service delivery. This paper presents results of a statistical analysis of an online survey conducted to evaluate ATIS initiatives in Los Angeles (n = 155) and Minneapolis/St. Paul (n = 246). Using structural equation modeling, a highly statistically significant goodness-of-fit was found for the EGOVSAT model, which included 11 measures capturing three constructs ( utility, efficiency, customization ) as affecting four emotional dimensions ( confidence, pleasantness, frustration, satisfaction). These quantitative results were then supplemented with qualitative findings from three focus groups that were conducted with survey participants. The overall results suggest that there is value in utilizing a robust measure of citizen satisfaction, such as measured by EGOVSAT.

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