Citizens and mobile government: an empirical analysis of the antecedents and consequences of mobile government usage

Abstract

Mobile government services have significantly gained importance for practitioners and researchers. However, there is a lack of empirical investigation into the diffusion of mobile government among users. Based on the technology acceptance model and related literature, we derived a structural model providing the central antecedents of citizens’ usage intention of mobile government services and its effect on word-of-mouth intention. Findings from a sample of 161 German public administration students largely supported the model. Only the anticipated effect of perceived interactivity on intention to use was not supported.

Points for practitioners

The study provides a comprehensive model of mobile government applications’ success. Professionals who develop mobile government services should focus on usefulness, usability and a high level of service coverage, as well as privacy and security aspects, to increase citizens’ intention to use the respective service. Interactivity has not been found to be a significant factor for citizens’ intention to use mobile government services. The study also suggests that citizens will recommend the services to others if they intend to use it in the first place.

Keywords

eGovernment empirical analysis mobile government technology acceptance model word of mouth

Introduction

The constant access to the Internet through mobile devices such as cellular/mobile telephones, laptop computers, tablets, wearables and wireless Internet infrastructure constitutes a new information environment, which can be used to provide more and different types of public services (Amdani and Choudhari, 2014). At the same time, public institutions can reduce costs and improve their service quality (Madden et al., 2013), as well as add another service channel (Wirtz and Langer, 2017). Moreover, studies show that the public use of mobile channels enhances citizen participation and collaboration (Sandoval-Almazan and Gil-Garcia, 2012). However, there are also several challenges associated with mobile government (mGov): citizens might be reluctant to seek government services due to their negative impression of public institutions (Shareef et al., 2014) or their security concerns (Winkler et al., 2011).

In this study, mGov is considered to be a part of eGovernment. mGov reflects the different applications of mobile devices in the public administration context. The emergence of smartphones and respective technologies (Global Positioning System (GPS), mobile messaging, face recognition, voice messaging, heat sensors, etc.) is a basis for specific public services: public location-based services (such as emergency warnings and public transformation planning) or user identification (through fingerprints or near-field communication technologies).

In fact, ‘mobile government is considered to be one of the most important trends in e-Government research’ (Rosenbaum et al., 2018: 198), which is why researchers see a general need for further research (Khanesha and Jani, 2016). To improve mGov services, citizens’ intention towards mobile communication factors should be explored (Hung et al., 2013), which is particularly needed concerning the calls for empirical investigation into the diffusion of mGov among users (Liu et al., 2014) and the limited research on factors that affect the acceptance of mGov services (Althunibat et al., 2014).

Against this background, this study contributes to the field by investigating citizens’ intention to use mGov services and citizens’ word-of-mouth (WoM) intention. In addition, it provides practical implications with respect to individual success factors and the drivers of intention to use mGov applications and citizens’ WoM intention.

Literature overview

In order to comprehend the current state of mGov research, we conducted an extensive search using EBSCOhost Online Research Databases, (active databases: Academic Search Complete, Business Source Complete and EconLit with full text – those databases include Wiley-Blackwell, Springer Nature, Elsevier, Taylor & Francis, Penton Media, Emerald Publishing, Public Library of Science and IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers). Subsequently Google Scholar was used to search for potentially missing literature. We focused the literature search on existing mGov research and concentrated on empirical studies to keep the literature overview as compact as possible. For the development of the model and its operationalization, we derived further insights from related eGovernment studies. Considering these conditions, we identified 52 academic publications. With regard to their research approach, these articles can be divided into three categories: first, articles with conceptual perspectives; second, articles with descriptive empirical research, such as case studies; and, third, articles using multivariate empirical analyses.

Regarding conceptual publications on mGov, these mainly deal with the rise of new information and communication technologies (ICTs) and the opportunities and challenges for government and public administration (Al-Hubaishi et al., 2017; De Reuver et al., 2013; Goyal and Purohit, 2012). Since mGov applications enhance the interactivity between citizens and government, public service providers can take advantage of these features to provide users with important information and services (Ishmatova and Obi, 2009). Furthermore, mGov services allow better precision and personalization in targeting users as mobile devices are themselves personal, that is, designed to be used by a single user (Ishmatova and Obi, 2009).

From a budgetary perspective, the provision of mGov services is cost-effective due to simple data gathering and reduced communication costs (Goyal and Purohit, 2012). Regarding democratic processes, mGov implementation may contribute to increased democracy in terms of mobile elections and using mobile tools that facilitate citizens to participate in online discussions of political issues (Jahanshahi et al., 2011). One of the aspects that concerns mGov research is the privacy and security concern (Rifón and Sabucedo, 2010).

As the second category of literature on mGov, the identified case studies mostly aim at the provision of implications and recommendations. Ease of use seems especially to be a core factor for the acceptance of mobile applications among citizens (Avdic et al., 2014). Key aspects related to customization and personalization (Ntaliani et al., 2008), privacy and security (Ntaliani et al., 2008), system design, interactivity, the implementation process, and policy (Lorenzi et al., 2014) have been found to be crucial for the success of mGov implementation.

There are only a few published articles that can be assigned to the third category: multivariate empirical studies. The article of Ohme (2014) contributes to the intent to determine a model that helps to explain citizens’ preferences towards mGov services. The study of Almarashdeh and Alsmadi (2017) also provides insights into the acceptance of mGov services in Saudi Arabia. This is similar to the article of Wirtz and Birkmeyer (2018), which provides insights into factors that determine the attractiveness of mGov services by using structural equation modelling. This focus on attractiveness stands in contrast to the study at hand, which examines the interdependencies of factors that determine the intention to use mGov services. The two studies of Shareef et al. (2016a, 2016b) focus on a cross-cultural study comparison of citizens’ adoption behaviour of mGov and the driving factors and cultural impacts of mGov services. The study of Baabdullah et al. (2016) also uses the technology acceptance model (TAM) as a basis and provides valuable insights into the factor of innovativeness in relation to mGov services in Saudi Arabia. Chen et al. (2016) examine how mobile and wireless technologies affect user satisfaction in the mGov field. The derived multi-theoretical model demonstrates that the use of mGov increases the procedural fairness of public services, which eventually improves user satisfaction.

By investigating citizens’ intention to adopt mGov services in India, Shareef et al. (2012) find that trust in public services determines the perception of security, which is an important factor for the successful adoption of mGov. Another study on mGov applications in Egypt by Abdekghaffar and Magdy (2012) outlines the dependence of perceived usefulness on the intention to use mGov in Egypt. This is aligned with the findings on the factor of ease of use: Hung et al. (2013) show that perceived ease of use and interactivity determine citizens’ attitudes towards mGov in Taiwan; and Liu et al. (2014) show the importance of the factors of perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness for the adoption of mGov in China.

The literature overview illustrates that mGov research is still a young area of study. It also emphasizes the importance of the factor of citizens’ intention to use mGov as it constitutes the key success factor from the perspective of citizens. However, we did not find multivariate empirical research that investigates the influence of these last two factors on citizens’ intention to use mGov. Apart from that, factors such the level of comprehensiveness of the mobile service, such as ‘full online mobile government services’ (Wirtz and Birkmeyer, 2018: 1393), were not tested as to their effect on usage intention. Another aspect that was left to be determined is the effect of usage intention on the diffusion of the technology among citizens.

Theoretical framework

Information system research offers several theoretical frameworks that can be applied in the public administration context. At this point, the TAM is a valuable framework, especially for explaining the intention to use innovative information technologies (Martins et al., 2014). While the theory of reasoned action generally depicts an explanatory model for rational human action, the TAM aims at explaining particular behaviour for the initial use of innovative technical systems in the working environment (Wirtz et al., 2015). In this context, the study adopts the concept of intention to use, which is widely used within the field of information technology acceptance (Venkatesh et al., 2003). Moreover, the TAM is about determining people’s acceptance of technology based on their intentions towards such technology, relying mainly on two factors extracted from the theory of reasoned action: perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use.

Against this background, we develop a causal research model that is grounded in the TAM. This causal model is tested as to its conception and theoretically derived structure and relations (Hair et al., 2014). With the aim of investigating citizens’ perception towards their intention to use mGov applications and their WoM intention, we follow the identified research and use the TAM and the respective structural modelling approach.

Conceptualization and hypotheses development

The structure of a causal model can generally be divided into exogenous variables, presenting factors of influence, and endogenous variables, depicting the effects. The exogenous variables of this study are deduced from the literature (for reliability and validity information, see Table A1 in the online Appendices). In accordance with the TAM, the two factors of perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness determine citizens’ intention to use mGov technologies (Venkatesh and Davis, 2000). Perceived ease of use can be defined as ‘the degree to which a person believes using a particular system would be free of effort’ (Davis, 1989: 320). Furthermore, the factor reflects the perceived physical or mental effort and indicates to what extent technology or a system can easily be used (Wirtz et al., 2012). The original basic technology acceptance theory indicates that perceived ease of use, as well as perceived usefulness, first influences attitudes towards a new technology, which then stimulates the intention to use. In its original form, only perceived usefulness also directly influences the intention to use. Methodologically, one can claim, the construct ‘attitude towards a technology’ simply constitutes a mediating factor between ‘perceived usefulness’ and ‘perceived ease of use’ on the ‘intention to use’. In our case, however, we intend to derive an empirically supported model that is as compact and rigorous as possible, and that gives researchers and public managers a set of factors that constitute the crucial elements for successful mGov services (see Figure 1). Against this background, the elimination of the mediating construct ‘attitude towards a new technology’ from the original TAM is not an uncommon approach (Tsai, 2014; Wirtz et al., 2018). One of the founders of the TAM himself proposes this direct relation in his intervention-oriented version (see Venkatesh and Bala, 2008). We therefore propose that the factor of perceived ease of use influences perceived usefulness:

Figure 1.

Conceptual research model.

H1: The perceived ease of use of mGov services positively influences the perceived usefulness of mGov.

H2: The perceived ease of use of mGov services positively influences citizens’ intention to use mGov services.

Perceived usefulness is another factor from the TAM, which can be defined as ‘the degree to which a person believes that using a particular system would enhance his or her job performance’ (Davis, 1989: 320). The factor describes the subjective feeling of citizens towards technology or their subjective assessment as to what extent the technology can be of benefit to them. Perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use have a strong influence on intention to accept technology (Juniwati, 2014). Against this background, this study proposes the following hypothesis:

H3: The perceived usefulness of mGov positively influences citizens’ intention to use mGov services.

As derived from the literature, important aspects of mGov are the security of the system and the privacy of the citizens. Mobile technologies and services are more susceptible to security threats because they can easily be stolen or because of their weak built-in security measures (Moon, 2010). In this context, citizens must believe that mechanisms are in place to ensure secure and private data transmission (Bélanger and Carter, 2008).

We consider the factor ‘perceived privacy and security of mGov services’ to be a risk construct that focuses on the particular risk of losing control over personal data and the risk of granting access to critical systems, such as bank accounts or private or company computers. One aspect that has been found to be of particular importance is the privacy concerns of citizens that fear the misuse or disclosure of their personal data. Privacy and security are critical factors concerning intention to use as they represent citizens’ perception of mGov services as secure and without any uncertainty or adverse consequences, as well as the ability to determine when, and to what extent, information about them is communicated to others (Alawneh et al., 2013). Therefore, the following hypothesis is formulated:

H4: The perceived privacy and security of mGov positively influences citizens’ intention to use mGov services.

Studies in related fields have indicated the importance of interactivity for the acceptance of mobile apps (Chen et al., 2012; Okazaki and Mendez, 2013). We define interactivity as the state of experience by a user during his or her interaction with a mobile phone (Lee et al., 2015). Public mobile services include not only the proprietary mobile applications of the public institution, but also mobile services based on third-party mobile platforms such as Facebook or third-party city platforms to inform and also communicate directly with citizens (Wirtz et al., 2018). In this context, it is also worth mentioning that the simple offering of a comment or sharing function to a public notice (e.g. with default Facebook and Twitter functionality) provides an important interactive opportunity for citizens. Interactivity has been identified as an important media characteristic that is a significant antecedent of affective response in media technology studies (Chen et al., 2012). Thus, interactivity should have a positive impact on intention to use:

H5: The interactivity of mGov positively influences citizens’ intention to use mGov services.

In accordance with the electronic government literature, a key factor to measure the process of government service delivery is the full online availability of public services (Wirtz and Kurtz, 2016). This construct describes the possibility for citizens to handle public services electronically without having to appear in person at the respective service desk. Concerning the tremendous use of mobile Internet, it is not without reason that large Internet corporations such as Google follow a mobile-first strategy by giving mobile services priority over conventional desktop Internet services (DeMers, 2017). This goes aligned with the fact that the global number of mobile Internet users exceeded desktop Internet users for the first time in November 2016 (StatCounter, 2017). Considering the location, time and personal data/identification dimension of mGov services, we developed the concept of full mobile services as a natural and even more potent derivation of full online services. This allows users to execute mobile services from a single point of online access (Al-Sebie and Irani, 2014). The concept of complete or online services also describes a high level or even complete coverage of all the given public service offers of one department (Capgemini, 2017). The implementation of full mobile services would foster governments and citizens profiting from the benefits of the digitization of government services as these kinds of mobile services offer several advantages for citizens, primarily including effort, cost and time savings (Al-Sebie and Irani, 2014). Thus, we formulate the following hypothesis:

H6: Full mobile online services positively influence citizens’ intention to use mGov services.

The two endogenous variables represent the usage attitude in this study (see Table A2 in the online appendices). Citizens’ intention to use mGov services is based on the theory of reasoned action by Fishbein and Ajzen (1975). It refers to human behaviour that is determined by an intention, which, in turn, depends on an attitude towards an act or behaviour. Such attitudes are assumed to result from a set of beliefs about subjects, objects or processes (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975).

The construct of WoM intention has been combined with the TAM in different studies (Parry et al., 2012; Rauniar et al., 2014). WoM is defined as ‘informal communications directed at other consumers about the ownership, usage, or characteristics of particular goods and services and/or their sellers’ (Westbrook, 1987: 261). Thus, citizens’ WoM is a flow of information that reflects the contents of social influence and is related to intention to use (Song et al., 2008). Especially in the case of the diffusion of mGov services, citizens’ WoM intention plays an important role since innovations in government services are communicated among the citizens via both government promotion efforts and citizen WoM (Wang and Doong, 2010).

The spreading of public service innovations such as mGov is different from the conventional market-driven innovations of private firms due to the lack of hedonistic relevance to users, their utilitarian nature and low – often non-existing – marketing budgets. Therefore, the citizen-to-citizen recommendation of new public services plays a pivotal role. We believe that it is crucial to find evidence of an effect of the intention to use mGov services on citizens’ WoM intention. Against this background, we propose the following hypothesis:

H7: Citizens’ intention to use mGov services positively influences their WoM intention.

Method and data

The seven hypotheses are empirically examined in the following. Wherever possible, this study’s variables were measured using multiple-item measures that have been successfully tested in earlier studies. When dealing with research models including latent variables and their complex interrelations, structural equation modelling has been determined as a superior statistical method (Hair, 2017), and is particularly suitable in the public administration context (Taiwo et al., 2014). Since this study has a mainly confirmatory, hypothesis-testing character, covariance-based structural analysis has been applied (Hair et al., 2014). Therefore, the statistical tool AMOS 22 was employed. The survey was voluntary and no incentives were used to artificially stimulate participation. In total, we obtained 289 usable questionnaires. Thus, the sample size fulfils the methodological requirements of the minimum sample size of Hair et al. (2014) (150) and Chin and Newsted (1999) (200) for statistically robust results.

Due to the lack of official data about the distribution or number of the population of users and/or potential users of mGov services in Germany, it is impossible to verify the representativeness of the sample applied. We followed the standard methodological approach in such cases and thus used ‘convenience sampling’ (Bhattacherjee, 2012: 69; Gravetter and Forzano, 2016). The questionnaire was sent to students of public management and administration, as well as law studies. This target group seemed to be of particular interest due to their age-related likelihood of using mobile services frequently and their expertise on public services. We spread the survey through email and posted a call for participation on the Facebook groups of the university. Our team therefore reached out to Internet users in Germany that are active or potential mGov users. We therefore triggered a snowballing effect of spreading and sharing, which is why we cannot report a response rate. The survey was active for eight weeks in the summer of 2016. The concept of mGov was briefly described on the landing page of the survey to make sure that participants easily understand the context. Therefore, all survey participants had sufficient knowledge of the concept of mGov and the objective of the study.

Considering the characteristics of the sample, it is obvious that we do not claim representativeness for the German population as the average respondents are, for instance, much younger than the average age of the German population (see Table 1). However, we argue that the sample represents potential users of mGov services due to their exposure to mobile Internet.

Table 1.

Characteristics of the sample and the population.

	Characteristics	Sample (N = 161)
Gender	Male	47.80%
Gender	Female	52.20%
Age	Up to 19 years	2.50%
	20–29 years	71.40%
	30–39 years	21.20%
	40–49 years	4.30%
	50–72 years	0.60%
Mobile Internet usage	Up to 3 hours	21.70%
	3–10 hours	44.70%
	10 hours and more	33.50%

We do not expect biases in the data for technically savvy users because using an online questionnaire does not differ significantly from using mobile Internet concerning the needed cognitive requirements. Moreover, it prevents the entry of answers from offline users. The questionnaire offers a seven-point Likert scale ranging from ‘1’ (strongly disagree) to ‘7’ (strongly agree). Concerning our empirical research, we give validity and reliability the highest importance and have followed the recommendations of the standard methodological literature, such as Zikmund (2012) and Hair et al. (2014).

First, an extensive literature review and in-depth expert interviews were carried out, as recommended by Chang et al. (2011). Second, to enhance survey reliability and to rule out as far as possible any potential for misunderstandings, we conducted intensive pretesting, including a think-aloud test, an item-sorting test and a preliminary survey to ensure the study’s clearness, comprehensibility and feasibility (Anderson and Gerbing, 1991). The think-aloud test is a proven method to identify and uncover ambiguities by encouraging test participants to think aloud and comment on all of their actions while completing the questionnaire. In this way, the observer directly gathers information about misunderstandings and editing requirements (cf. Jørgensen, 1990: 501).

Non-response bias may occur due to a lack of information on the population’s non-responding test persons (Ruxton, 2006). Thus, we conducted a Mann–Whitney U-Test (Mann and Whitney, 1947). As a result, it could be shown that only slightly under 10% of the indicators of the study showed a significant difference between the early respondents and the late respondents at the 5% significant level. Thus, a significant influence of non-response bias can be ruled out.

The goal of an item-sorting or Anderson–Gerbing test is the prediction of indicator performance in a confirmatory factor analysis and the evaluation of the understanding and response equivalence of the factors. In addition, the participants were encouraged to provide comments on the indications of punctuation and spelling errors, the intelligibility of all communication, and the potential problems that may arise from ambiguous words or phrases (Anderson and Gerbing, 1991). The preliminary survey served as a kind of test run for the subsequent main survey. This common multistep approach serves to ensure that attention is paid to the validity and reliability of the survey instrument (Kumar et al., 1993; Podsakoff and Organ, 1986). The aforementioned proceedings also include the survey instructions and all other information provided to the participants when starting with the questionnaire.

Empirical results

The analysis of the individual measurement models shows that the used indicators are reliable and valid. Following the verification of the measurement models, discriminant validity was tested with the Fornell–Larcker criterion (Fornell and Larcker, 1981) . As shown in Table 2, this quality measure is met for all factors.

Table 2.

Fornell–Larcker criterion.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
Perceived ease of use of mobile government services (1)	0.752
Perceived ease of use of mobile government services (1)	0.243	0.719
Perceived ease of use of mobile government services (1)	0.088	0.138	0.672
Perceived ease of use of mobile government services (1)	0.083	0.162	0.183	0.819
Full online mobile government services (5)	0.013	0.15	0.104	0.203	0.632
Intention to use mobile government services (6)	0.153	0.361	0.130	0.118	0.201	0.879
WoM intention concerning mobile government services (7)	0.067	0.325	0.218	0.254	0.311	0.497	0.721

Regarding the global quality levels, the overall model shows a sufficient fit since the fit indexes (GFI^, AGFI^, CFI, TLI and RMSEA ) meet the values recommended in the scientific literature. More precisely, with values of 0.922 and 0.901, the CFI and TLI are both above 0.9 and AGFI^ has a value of 0.90 (Hair et al., 2009). The RMSEA value of 0.083 is below the critical criteria of 0.1 recommended by Hu and Bentler (1999) and Browne and Cudeck (1993: 144).

Furthermore, we examined the structural relationships of the overall model. Six of the seven path relationships are statistically significant. The six significant paths support the positive hypothesized effects of perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, perceived privacy and security, and full online services on citizens’ intention to use mGov services.

Given the significant relationship of the path coefficient of 0.665, the assumed positive influence of citizens’ intention to use mGov service on citizens’ WoM intention was not rejected. Furthermore, there is a high contribution (0.439) of perceived usefulness to citizens’ intention to use mGov services. However, the hypothesis regarding the interactivity of mGov services was rejected due to the missing significance of its effect. All the standardized coefficients of the structural model are presented in Figure 2.

Figure 2.

Structural model.

Discussion of findings, implications and conclusions

The starting point of this study was the lack of empirical literature on citizens’ intention to use mGov services. The findings of the present analysis contribute to the current state of knowledge and provide valuable implications to public administration officials. Furthermore, the measurement scales employed proved to be valid and may thus be used in future research endeavours.

In this study’s model, the two established acceptance-based concepts of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use were complemented by four new relevant latent concepts that are widely discussed in mobile research and thus represent fundamental determinates of mGov acceptance. The received data indicate that six of the seven proposed hypotheses are supported. More specifically, we propose that perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness with regard to mGov, privacy and security, and the availability of a full online service determine citizens’ intention to use mGov services, which, in turn, is assumed to determine their WoM intention concerning mGov. Concerning our empirical study, we demonstrate that all of these suggested cause–effect relationships are significant except the interactivity of mGov services. Regarding the study results, citizens’ intention to use mGov services has a meaningful impact on citizens’ WoM intention. Thus, it seems important for citizens to be clear about their own usage intention with regard to mGov services before recommending it to other citizens. This, in turn, indicates that citizens have developed positive attitudes towards mGov in terms of usefulness, ease of use and purpose fulfilment. Furthermore, perceived usefulness has the strongest influence among all exogenous factors that determine citizens’ intention to use mGov services. From the results, we conclude that if people believe that a mobile service is rather effortless to use and enhances their performance, this positively affects their intention to use this service. With respect to perceived usefulness, the finding is in line with previous mGov studies (i.e. Abdekghaffar and Magdy, 2012; Hung et al., 2013).

In contrast to perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use showed less impact on citizens’ intention to use mGov services. The finding supports other public administration studies that also showed lower ease of use values (Hung et al., 2013). Besides perceived usefulness, the level of service coverage (full mobile service) is an important factor for usage intention. Its main advantage is the fully mobile handling of administrative affairs with minimal appearance at the competent public authority or other service interfaces.

The importance of security and privacy concerns in the mobile environment has often been discussed and reported in many studies because citizens are concerned about the level of control by others over personally identifiable information (Aloudat and Michael, 2011; Shareef et al., 2014). The study shows that this factor is, indeed, important as citizens’ perceived privacy and security of mGov services has a significant effect on intention to use mGov.

The hypothesis regarding the potential link between interaction and intention to use mGov had to be rejected. This finding may relate to the information-oriented usage of citizens (Sung et al., 2009). At the same time, however, this finding stands in contrast to the conclusions of Hung et al.(2013). The differences may be related to the different mGov services available in the examined countries, as well as cultural differences.

Given the importance of ease of use and particularly usefulness for citizens’ intention to use mGov, it is essential for public managers to put special emphasis on the quality and usability of their applications. Furthermore, mGov services will not be successful if they do not provide a comprehensive service offer. Moreover, public officers in charge should ensure that mGov applications are up to date and provide reliable user-oriented services.

Given the uncertain environment of wireless communications, security and privacy concerns have been identified as key challenges. Therefore, there is a need for a legal framework to regulate mobile transactions (Al-Hujran, 2012) and for tackling the risk of publishing personal information. One possible solution is based on the unique identification of mobile devices, thereby enabling replies to be sent to citizens without providing personal information (Lönn et al., 2016).

Concerning the fact that mGov is still in its early stages (Khanesha and Jani, 2016) and the low levels of citizens’ readiness towards mGov (Abdekghaffar and Magdy, 2012), citizens’ WoM intention is a key factor for the acceptance of mGov services. Public managers should promote mGov services via online and offline media to reach a broader audience and gain new mobile users. To successfully deal with the requirements of mobile ICT services, public managers need to be well trained in these matters.

Limitations and future research

Besides its scientific and practical contribution, the present study also includes some limitations. The intention behind this study is to derive an empirically supported model that is as compact and rigorous as possible. Even though the foundation for the model is the TAM, the model has been carefully expanded and reduced where possible. This process included the elimination of the standard moderating factor ‘attitude towards …’, which might limit the theoretical foundation.

Moreover, this study is based on data collected in 2016 and only provides insights on the preferences during that time. Furthermore, this study is limited to German mGov actual and potential users. Hence there are differences with regard to the provision of mGov services and cultural characteristics. Cultural specifics may be especially relevant in the context of interactivity. Thus, an investigation of mGov services from a cross-country perspective would be of great value. The limitations of this study are also related to sample selection and the cross-sectional research design. Here, additional studies, especially with large sample sizes, seem reasonable to challenge the findings of this investigation. Another issue of mGov research is the diverse forms of services, which might also affect the way in which it is used and spread among citizens.

Since mGov is still a new subject to researchers, further investigation is necessary to test the existing findings and expand our understanding of citizens’ intention to use mGov, as well as their WoM intention. Another aspect is the perceived need and willingness to make use of those new mobile technologies for government purposes.

Supplemental Material

RAS862349 Supplemental Material - Supplemental material for Citizens and mobile government: an empirical analysis of the antecedents and consequences of mobile government usage

Supplemental material, RAS862349 Supplemental Material for Citizens and mobile government: an empirical analysis of the antecedents and consequences of mobile government usage by Bernd W. Wirtz, Steven Birkmeyer and Paul F. Langer in International Review of Administrative Sciences

Footnotes

Supplemental data

Online appendices may be found at .

Bernd W. Wirtz holds the Chair for Information and Communication Management at the German University of Administrative Sciences Speyer, Germany. His research interests include e-government, open government, e-business, social media and business model management. He regularly publishes in peer-reviewed scientific journals, such as Long Range Planning, Public Management Review and Public Administration.

Steven Birkmeyer is a research fellow at the German University of Administrative Sciences Speyer, Germany. With his research, he examines the effects of digitization on markets and society, while focusing particularly on mobile technology applications, such as mHealth and mGovernment.

Paul F. Langer works as a research associate and is a PhD candidate at the Chair for Information and Communication Management at the German University of Administrative Sciences Speyer, Germany. His main research interests are platform economics, switching costs, ubiquitous computing and digital government.

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