Use levels of electronic government services among German citizens: An empirical analysis of objective household and personal predictors

Abstract

Purpose

To better understand the use intensity of e-government service offerings among citizens, a considerable number of studies have examined correlations between various attitudinal constructs related to such offerings and citizens’ service adoption (intentions). This investigational paper aims to take a different angle by exploring associations between a set of 11 objectively identifiable household and individual behavioral and socio-demographic characteristics on the one side and three levels of e-government services use on the other.

Design/methodology/approach

The empirical analysis is based on survey responses of a random sample of 17,012 individuals residing in Germany.

Findings

Ordinal logistic regression analysis suggests that citizens with low use levels of public e-service offerings are most likely younger male persons with low levels of computer literacy, internet affinity and education, who have a migration background and live in small mid-level-income households located in rural communities.

Practical implications

The findings imply that public institutions may find it difficult to rapidly raise e-government acceptance by distributing only “technocratic” information explaining various service options. Public authorities should consider supplementing “pure” information programs by measures which ensure that the software of e-government service platforms is designed in a way guaranteeing a very high level of “usability”. Furthermore, they should analyze whether the benefits of providing e-government services in specific foreign languages outweigh the costs of such a service extension. If this is the case, an easy-to-use software menu item should be introduced which enables citizens to switch to another common foreign language.

Originality/value

The contribution of this paper results from the analysis of a set of objective predictors of e-government service use in a large random sample of citizens residing in Germany, whereas most prior studies are based on surveys of small convenience samples in other countries.

Citation

Gerpott, T.J. and Ahmadi, N. (2016), "Use levels of electronic government services among German citizens: An empirical analysis of objective household and personal predictors", Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy, Vol. 10 No. 4, pp. 637-668. https://doi.org/10.1108/TG-05-2016-0025