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Factors influencing e-government use in non-urban areas

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Abstract

Evidence suggests that citizens outside larger urban centers are less prone to use the various functionalities of e-government, while they are the most likely to benefit from these services. Few studies have been performed to understand rural citizens’ attitudes. Our purpose was to identify factors that influence the use of e-government services in outlying regions in the Province of Quebec (Canada). Our study was based on a subset of attitude-related variables that were shown to be strong predictors in prior research. We performed a survey involving 1587 citizens living in four selected outlying regions of Quebec, and held two focus groups with users and non-users of e-government. Our results confirm that attitude is influenced by perceived usefulness; perceived ease of use, perceived risk and trust and that attitude is strongly related to the intention to use e-government services. These results may help to plan more effective strategies to increase use in non-urban areas.

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Acknowledgments

This research was sponsored by the Government of Quebec, through the program «Supporting the passage to an Information Society». The authors wish to thank the referees and the journal editor for their useful comments and suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Information Systems, Faculty of Business Administration, Laval University, 2325 Rue de la Terrasse, Quebec, QC, G1V 0A6, Canada

    Marie-Christine Roy & Anne Chartier

  2. Political Department of Science, Faculty of Social Sciences, Laval University, 1030 Avenue des Sciences Humaines, Quebec, QC, G1V 0A6, Canada

    Jean Crête

  3. Department of Management, Faculty of Business Administration, Laval University, 2325 Rue de la Terrasse, Quebec, QC, G1V 0A6, Canada

    Diane Poulin

Authors
  1. Marie-Christine Roy
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  2. Anne Chartier
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Correspondence to Marie-Christine Roy.

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Roy, MC., Chartier, A., Crête, J. et al. Factors influencing e-government use in non-urban areas. Electron Commer Res 15, 349–363 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10660-015-9193-4

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