The digital divide and t-government in the United States: using the technology acceptance model to understand usage

Abstract

This paper applies the technology acceptance model to explore the digital divide and transformational government (t-government) in the United States. Successful t-government is predicated on citizen adoption and usage of e-government services. The contribution of this research is to enhance our understanding of the factors associated with the usage of e-government services among members of a community on the unfortunate side of the divide. A questionnaire was administered to members, of a techno-disadvantaged public housing community and neighboring households, who partook in training or used the community computer lab. The results indicate that perceived access barriers and perceived ease of use (PEOU) are significantly associated with usage, while perceived usefulness (PU) is not. Among the demographic characteristics, educational level, employment status, and household income all have a significant impact on access barriers and employment is significantly associated with PEOU. Finally, PEOU is significantly related to PU. Overall, the results emphasize that t-government cannot cross the digital divide without accompanying employment programs and programs that enhance citizens’ ease in using such services.

Keywords:

• t-government
• digital divide
• technology acceptance model
• TAM
• e-government
• taxonomy

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Janice C Sipior

About the authors

Janice C. Sipior is a professor in the Accountancy & Information Systems Department at Villanova University in Pennsylvania U.S.A. She was a visiting professor at University of Warsaw in Poland and Moscow State Linguistic University in Russia. She is Chair of the Association for Computing Machinery – Special Interest Group on Management Information Systems (ACM-SIGMIS) and serves as Editor-in-Chief of Information Systems Management, Senior Editor of Data Base, Associate Editor of Information Resources Management Journal, and Editorial Board of International Journal of Advanced Decision Sciences. Her research interests include ethical and legal aspects of information technology, system development strategies, and knowledge management.

Burke T Ward

Burke T. Ward is a professor in the Departments of Marketing and Business Law and The Graduate Tax Program at Villanova University. He is also of counsel to the law firm of Foehl & Eyre, Media, PA, U.S.A. He has published numerous articles in the areas of taxation, estate planning, information systems, and employment law.

Regina Connolly

Regina Connolly is a senior lecturer in Management Information Systems at Dublin City University Business School, Dublin, Ireland and is program director of the MSC in Electronic Commerce. In her undergraduate degree she received the Kellogg Award for outstanding dissertation and her M.Sc. degree was awarded with distinction. She was conferred with a Ph.D. in Information Systems from Trinity College Dublin. Her research interests include electronic commerce, digital divide, e-government, online trust and privacy issues, website service quality and healthcare information systems. She is an expert evaluator for the European Commission and has served on the expert eCommerce advisory group for Dublin Chamber of Commerce, which has advised national government on eCommerce strategic planning.