The effect of E-Government website evaluation on user satisfaction and intention to use: the mediating role of warmth and competence judgment on government

ABSTRACT

The development of technology has various effects on citizens’ daily lives, among which is the growing importance of e-governance. An e-government website is an essential communication platform that supports government-citizen interaction. The current research examines the relationship between e-government website evaluation and the variables indicative of the usage of e-government services (user satisfaction and intention to use) with basic social perceptions toward the government as the mediators using structural equation modelling. According to the stereotype content model (Fiske, 1993; Fiske et al., 2002), people form an impression of others based on two basic social dimensions (warmth and competence), and different levels of these dimensions determine how one forms attitudes and behaves toward the target. Our analysis confirms that both warmth and competence judgment function as crucial mediators for the relationship between e-government website evaluation and the intention to utilize e-government websites. This suggests that the government agency is not simply viewed as a service provider but also as a social entity that encompasses both warmth and competence from the perspective of citizens. By observing the aspects of website evaluation that are associated with the social dimensions, policymakers can strategically enhance citizens’ perception toward the government as well as their relationship with the government for the optimal operation of a country in a long-term perspective.

KEYWORDS:

• E-government
• democratic e-governance
• government website
• evaluation research
• stereotype content model
• social perception

Acknowledgement

The authors wish to thank Dr Whan-Ho Noh for helping with the initial literature search.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Declaration of interest

The authors of this article declare that they have no competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Additional information

Funding

We are grateful to the KDI School of Public Policy and Management for providing financial support. The present research has been conducted by the Research Grant of Kwangwoon University in 2021.

Notes on contributors

Byung-Kwan Lee

Byung-Kwan Lee is Professor of Industrial Psychology at Kwangwoon University. His research expertise is in consumer and social psychology, consumer behavior, and advertising effects, particularly on consumer information processing and advertising effectiveness on the Internet. His research appears in leading journals, such as International Journal of Information Management, Government Information Quarterly, Journal of Business Research, Psychology & Marketing, Journal of Advertising, and Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. He has served as a member of editorial board in Journal of Advertising and as a policy consultant for the Ministries of the Korean government including Korea Centers for Disease Control & Prevention and Seoul Metropolitan Government. He has earned a Master's degree and a PhD in Advertising at the University of Texas at Austin.

Eun Hee Lee

Eun Hee Lee is currently an Assistant Professor of Psychology at University of Nottingham Malaysia, where she runs the Sustainability- and-Liveability research group. Her research focuses on the psychosocial aspect of sustainability and liveability of modern society, including digital governance, new media environment, and environmental psychology. She received her PhD from University of Cambridge in Psychology, studying social cognition. Prior to the current position, she was a research fellow and the director of Social Cluster in a large-scale multidisciplinary project, investigating the psychological, social and health metrics associated with the modern underground working environment, funded by the government of Singapore at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

Taejun (David) Lee

Taejun (David) Lee (corresponding author) is a Professor of the KDI (Korea Development Institute) School of Public Policy and Management where he is also director of the KDI School Open Government & Innovation (OGI) Lab as well as the adjunct research fellow of KDI. He has interests in both behavioral experiments and qualitative studies and conduct empirical studies on a range of topics, including digital government, open government data, public services design and delivery, and data governance and smart city. He is partnering up with government bodies and international organizations for a series of projects involving researching, designing and evaluating governance efforts to promote the digital transformation of public policies and services and enhance the applications of innovative and emerging technologies for well-being and the public good.