A research report submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Commerce (Information Systems), in the School of Economic and Business Sciences at the University of Witwatersrand, March 2017 / In spite of the challenges arising from poverty, illiteracy, corruption and inefficient government processes, cities around the world are resolute in their quest to deliver key information and services to citizens by adopting and developing online government applications. For these applications to be successful, it is imperative that they offer services that adequately address the needs of citizens. The present study aimed at exploring the extent an e-government application is being effectively used, in a context of an African Smart city. Initially, the study reviewed a handful of relevant literature to support the aims of this study and to underpin the results on evidence-based theoretical foundations. The study moved beyond the commonly studied behavioural concepts of adoption and use, towards value-driven Information Systems diffusion.
While adoption and use of Information Systems are two widely recognised concepts throughout academia and extensively supported by literature, the effective use of Information Systems is generally neglected in theory and fails in practice. This gap presented in literature, an opportunity for this study to understand the value derived by citizens in using an e-government application and by governments in implementing it. The study has applied the Self-Determination Theory (SDT) and Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use Theory (UTAUT) frameworks to explain the determinants of use and subsequently, effective use. From the conceptual definition of the use of e-governance, this study has identified the motivating or selfregulating factors of effective use. The study then empirically measured a handful of them in order to infer and argue a case for effective use of such applications.
The initial findings suggest that an inferential discipline was applied and that Actual Usage infers Effective Use as intended by this study. The results also suggest that diffusion and effective use of an e-government application still requires some improvements. The user experience, lack or out-dated information and general lack of awareness of the application are among the more pertinent findings on effective use of an e-government application. The findings highlighted that effective use is
inferable when use of IS has been established. The empirical findings of this study demonstrate a need for a ‗one-stop shop‘ model and citizen-focused service delivery agenda for e-government applications. More specifically, the results of this study highlighted an inferential relationship between actual usage and effective use. This means that factors that affect Actual Usage, based on UTAUT are positively related to SDT factors of Effective Use. For instance, Performance Expectancy has been found to have a positive effect on Actual Usage, implying that citizens with high Performance Expectancy are more likely to use an e-government. Social Influences were also found to significantly affect the citizens‘ motivation and intentions to engage with an e-government application. A large number of users have indicated that their inclination to use the application was influenced by social connections. The Facilitating Conditions construct has been found to significantly influence the citizens‘ behavioural intention to use an e-government application. Predictably, the study also found Self-efficacy to be a weak predictor and moderator of a relationship between a dependent and an independent variable.
The immediate relevance and application of this study lies in the expected return on investment derived from an effective use of an e-government application, which is particularly beneficial for a budding African Smart City. The need to effectively and affordably deliver needed government information and services to citizen across the spectrum is even more pronounced in Africa. This study makes specific contributions to the formulation of a model and suggestions for future research. The theoretical contribution is in bridging the literature gap by providing a model for effective use of e-government application in the context of an African Smart City. The current study is one of the first to demonstrate the influence SDT has on actual usage and effective use. This is useful to studies in the IS Domain, particularly for the new concepts of e-government and Smart City. / XL2018
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/24130 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | Mark, Bende |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | Online resource (136 leaves), application/pdf |
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