Survey-based Study

The main field work of this PhD study was a large scale survey-based study. As summarized in table 4.3, the main objectives of the survey are:

1. To establish the relationships between the factors identified in the proposed framework.

2. To investigate their effect on e-government portals’ success dimensions (i.e. actual use, behaviour intention to re-use, user satisfaction and net benefits) from other dimensions in the framework.

3. To examine the influence of the identified personal values in Delphi study (see chapter 7) on e-government acceptance.

According to (Loiacono et al., 2007) commenting on evaluating websites in general,

“there is no extant general measure for evaluating websites and no consensus on what such an instrument should measure”. This can be applied to e-government and other IS applications which use web technology as a means to interact with the users. Given the amount of practitioner and researcher interest in this area, a well-validated, generally available instrument would be very valuable. Therefore, it is a necessity to develop such an instrument for evaluating e-government portals, following a comprehensive and rigorous development method. Therefore, this survey study aims to test and validate what this research argues is a comprehensive framework.

4.2.3.1 Research Method of the Online-survey Based Study

In this research, a quantitative approach will be used which includes using numerical methods for collecting data and statistical tools for data analysis. According to Neuman (2006), “quantitative research addresses the issue of integrity by relying on objective technology such as precise statements, standard techniques, numerical measures, statistics and replications”. The use of a quantitative approach is justified in relation to the measurements (Bryman, 2004). This is one of the main reasons why researchers decide to use the quantitative approach (Ghauri and Gronhaug, 2010).

The surveys that use a quantitative approach are considered to be superior and far better than qualitative approaches with regard to generalization (Johnson and Duberley, 2000).

This research uses self-reported questions to measure many variables and to test various hypotheses. Therefore, the survey is the appropriate method for collecting data for this research. Neuman (2006) comments on situations where survey is an appropriate method: “Surveys are appropriate for research questions about self-reported beliefs or behaviours. Researchers usually ask about many things at one time in surveys, measure

many variables (often with multiple indicators), and test several hypotheses in a single survey”.

Consequently, this study is in line with the majority of studies which use survey-based research to test hypothesized relationships (Urbach et al., 2009). In particular, there are many studies which consider DeLone and McLean’s (2003) IS success model as the theoretical framework and adopt a quantitative approach with survey method to test the hypothesized relationship between constructs (e.g. (Wang and Liao, 2008; Urbach et al., 2010; Schaupp et al., 2009)).

4.2.3.1.1 Measures of the Constructs

After reviewing the literature for existing constructs and conducting the exploratory study., initial measurement items were established for each of the constructs. In order to ensure content validity (Wang and Liao, 2008), most of the items selected for this research were mainly adapted from previous IS success studies. There are new items that need to be validated in the context of e-government. These items are the output of the aforementioned exploratory study conducted as part of this research.

In fact, using tested proven measures –where available– is based on recommendations given by many scholars to operationalize the conceptual model’s constructs (Urbach et al., 2010). This enhances validity and keeps this research in line with previous studies (e.g. (Bharati and Chaudhury, 2004; DeLone and McLean, 2003; Kankanhalli et al., 2005;

Sugianto and Tojib, 2006)) (Urbach et al., 2010).

4.2.3.1.2 Research Setting

This study is conducted in the context of Saudi Arabia’s e-government portals. The list of the government portals evaluated is obtained from the website of the Saudi National e-Government Portal (National e-e-Government Portal, 2013). This portal belongs to the Saudi e-Government Initiative Program named ‘Yesser’.

Participants are invited through the institutions (i.e. public and private sector organizations) which they belong to. All major institutions in Saudi Arabia were contacted to invite their members to participate in this study. Participation by the members of those institutions was acquired by sending invitations by emails requesting them to fill in the survey questionnaire. Invitations by emails were directed to the officials who can make a decision to forward the invitation to relevant members of the organization.

In fact, the population of this study is all male and female adults (citizens and residents) who live in Saudi Arabia and are eligible to use Saudi e-government portals. However, it

was decided to contact the major public and private sector organizations for easy access to potential participants. Those organizations are spread all over the country.

4.2.3.1.3 Data Collection

The data used to test the proposed research framework was obtained from a sample of e-government users. The generalizability of the results is increased by inviting respondents who have experience using one of the various e-government portals in Saudi Arabia. Wang and Liao (2008) requested participants to evaluate only six popular e-government portals in Taiwan. This may limit the participation to only users who have experience of using these portals only. The respondents to the survey questionnaire were asked to nominate one of the e-government portals that they are experienced with and have used recently.

Data collection was based on self-reported assessments and practices, rather than objective or observation data. Self-reported assessments and practices are deemed by Hu et al. (1999) to be appropriate because of the considerable literature that supports its use in intention-based studies. Further, the data was collected on a cross-sectional basis design. A total of 851 participants attempted the survey. Only 214 were validated responses and could be used in the analysis.

4.2.3.1.4 Survey Questionnaire

To a large extent, the survey questions of this questionnaire were obtained from previous studies. However, some modifications were made to make them proper in the context of e-government. In this research, Urbach et al.’s (2010) method of designing survey questions has been adopted. Therefore, survey questions were designed to capture the various aspects and functionalities of an e-government portal at the meta-level (e.g. by asking participants if the services they expect to receive from the government organization are all delivered online in their e-government portal).

Urbach et al. (2010) justify their method of designing the survey questions at the meta-level because employee portals are different and customized to an organization’s specific requirements. This is the same situation in e-government portals since those portals are usually designed to an organization’s specific requirements. Hence, the survey items were developed with the objective in mind that all participants will be clear and able to answer all the questions regardless of the available features delivered by a specific e-government portal. Therefore, this objective is consistent with Urbach et al.’s (2010) of designing the survey questions in the context of evaluating various employee portals.

4.2.3.1.5 Sampling for Surveys in e-Government

Lin et al. (2011) consider employees as subjects for the population of interest.

Employees, “because of their career, were identified as having a greater than average access to the internet of e-government facilities” (Lin et al., 2011). Carter and Bélanger (2005) collected the data at a community concert. Their study purpose was to examine a proposed model to understand what factors affect citizen adoption of e-government (Carter and Bélanger, 2005). The subjects –whose ages ranged from 14 to 83 years– of Papadomichelaki and Mentzas’ (2012) study were students, academic faculty members, employees, unemployed and retired

Abu-Shanab et al. (2010) commented on what sample is suitable for studying obstacles facing the adoption of e-government services. They stated that, testing the obstacles that face e-government services, the selection of a convenient sample of students is not suitable because students do not have the appropriate level of awareness and use of e-government services. The authors decided on mature users and heads of families, thus employees of public and private sectors and university students.

This survey-based study considers all individuals who tend to use e-government portals to search for information or apply for services online. Subjects were students, employed, non-employed and retired individuals. Hence, the questionnaire respondents are members of universities (i.e. students, academic faculty members and other employees), government agencies, and private sector firms’ employees.