Examining the role of institutional forces and user satisfaction in e-government public value

Governments continue to invest in e-government—the use of ICT and the Internet to deliver public services. To match such investments with the benefits expected from e-governments, their success must be measured. Varying user experiences are generated from contemporary Internet-based systems such as e-governments, which are characterised by personalisation and customisation. Moreover, measuring IS success in the public sector needs to incorporate intangible and subjective benefits derived not only from traditional and utilitarian values but also from social values to reflect contemporary complexities of online user interactions. Thus, there is a need to measure e-government success from the public value perspective. To increase the use of e-government systems, the government can potentially use institutional forces such as coercion to influence demand. Citizens' satisfaction with e-government systems is key to their success since satisfaction derived from the system determines its net benefits. Meanwhile, institutional and political factors have been identified as some of the barriers to e-government success. This chapter analyses how coercive institutional forces affect citizens' satisfaction with e-government usage to create public value. A proposed model will be used to explain institutional forces, citizen satisfaction, and system usage as determinants of e-government public value.