Electronic government serves to connect activities between society and the government. People are familiar with the term electronic government and have used other government applications to support their activities, such as searching for regional information, tourism potential, e-filing, and electronic citizen cards. The evolution of electronic government is occurring very quickly to facilitate the complex problems faced today and prepare for changes in the future. The role of government cannot be separated from service activities to the general citizen. One of the digital channels is electronic government, that can be used as a two-way service media that can adapt to changes both technically, as well as in design and strategy. Electronic government quality is an important domain that can influence citizens’ responses to the quality of facilities provided by the government. Connection quality is a user’s concept of what is felt that affects the quality of credence and contentment to the perceived experience.
The implementation of electronic government has shifted to e-facilities, and it is user oriented [1]. However, today’s scientific discourse still often ignores these shifts, where many studies today focus more on the application of electronic commerce and the use of user-oriented technology in general. More specifically, existing studies often adapt based on literature reviews and web-technology implementation, or commerce approaches related to the context of electronic government, and therefore they use generic abstract designs [2][3]. For example, the technology approval model (TAM) concept is most often used in measuring user approval with the utility and ease of use variables. However, for assessing citizen approval of electronic government, both constructs are not relevant enough and still require other variable constructs. In addition, several previous studies have confirmed that the variable, ease of use, has a positive and significant effect on the variable of perceived utility, which also affects the general motive of electronic government. Some studies that adopted the framework Delone and McLean called (D&M IS Success Model) have mentioned that the system’s quality, information quality, and service quality variables affect the variable of citizens’ motive to use electronic government. However, antithesis to some traditional studies of IS, the variable of system’s quality shows a weak correlation with the variable of intended use [4][5][6]. While based on the concept of innovation diffusion theory (IDT), it is predicted that the compatibility of independent variables, most excellence, complexity, and imagery all correlate with the variable of motives dependently. Therefore, considering multi-theory studies that combine two or more of the theories listed above, in this study, we were more likely to analyze the design of credence in the electronic government and construct credence in the paradigm of internet studies. Moreover, the results explained that variable of credence has a positive influence in describing the application of electronic government.
Studies using constructs into citizen motive of electronic government, confirmed by some scholars, are still in their early phases and growing; however, they provide some important points of view and concepts for citizens and government sectors. Notwithstanding the fundamental restructuring of citizen administration in the rapid development of information technology and the changing tendency of users of online media, previous studies have analyzed factors that establish that citizen motive usage of electronic government is still not appropriate. One of the reasons is the suitability of information systems and e-commerce models in general that are only technology-oriented [7][8]. This is not following the electronic government domain, because the elements in electronic government are very different from the context of IS study, social media commerce, or electronic commerce study. In addition, the implementation of the variable IS and the variable of e-commerce for the electronic government context is not strong enough to consider specific differences in electronic government systems, facilities, and users. The constructs of IDT theory that are often used, variable usability and variable ease of use, are also not suitable for assessing the motive of using electronic government. The same goes for meta-emotional designs that focus on a user’s emotional status, such as credence on the internet, perceived credibility, social influence, concept of risk, and subjective rules. This design precludes the identification of appropriate management parameters for well-planned user-oriented electronic government.
Relationship quality (RQ) represents the collaborative motive, connection, and feedback activity between two parties, as well as the intense communication between the two parties [9][10]. Tajvidi et al. [11] explained that in communicating we must focus on the connection between two parties, namely service providers and service users. Anastasiei et al. [12] mentioned credence as part of the connection quality dimension that depends on the type of message conveyed by the provider. Connection quality is an important factor for developing a positive connection [13], maintaining user faithfulness [14], encouraging purchase or reuse motive [15][16], and motiving continuous engagement in social activities [17].
RQ is considered to be a composite or multidimensional building because it basically consists of three different components related to credence, contentment, and responsibility [10][18]. However, this study only focuses on credence and contentment, in this case, credence and contentment in the design of connection quality: First, many previous studies have discussed RQ as a secondary form variable of credence and contentment as a measurement [19][20][21][22], if responsibility is removed, then, in design it did not show a significant difference. Second, responsibility is sourced from the results of connection quality [23] which is owned by user faithfulness [24], and in addition, some literature state that actually responsibility is not part of the design of connection quality [25][26][27].
Previous studies have stated that the citizen contentment variable has an important influence on citizens’ motives when they use electronic government [28]. Furthermore, the variable of citizen credence also gives a positive value to the motive of citizens to use electronic government [29]. These two variables are the constructor extraction of connection quality. Furthermore, Khan et al. [30] explained that there are two antecedent variables of social media for electronic government facilities, namely credence and contentment.
Most studies regard RQ as mediating between predecessors and consequences. A study found that the RQ between users and social networking sites can mediate the impact of social engagement and quality value from the website on motive to use. Masri et al. [31] also explained that one’s motive adds value to customer contentment. There is a good connection with contentment, credence, and sustainable motive which are all due to the quality of the information system. Perceived value affects contentment and credence. Tsai and Huang [32] also mentioned faithfulness. The existence of faithfulness is due to the RQ which is influenced by self-conformity, social rules, information based on quality aspect, and interactivity.
In the concept of electronic government, there is a commerce concept which states that connections based on building and maintaining RQ with customers can certainly have positive consequences. This can be seen in faithfulness, word-of-mouth (WoM), and implementation. Meyer [33] and Aymagambetov et al. [34] ensured the importance of using sustainable electronic government and maintaining the RQ. People routinely use electronic government facilities, and this can continue because to get attention, people need more time and effort. In addition, service providers or media are the key to success that can provide feedback on these facilities.
Take for example the application of citizen behavior such as motive and faithfulness. Reuse motive is the society’s desire to reuse a service. Schiffman and Kanuk [35] argued that motive is the likelihood that a person will reuse a particular service, with more substantial considerations than they previously perceived. People use electronic government facilities to seek relevant knowledge that is influenced by their concepts and the surrounding surroundings. After obtaining the knowledge needed, society, then, analyzes, examines, compares, and ends it, based on a prior study showing that motive is the main criterion of people’s behavior [36][37][38].
The psychological aspect felt by citizens after using electronic government can be seen from the concept of faithfulness. The higher the perceived positive aspects of electronic government facilities, the more the value of citizen faithfulness to electronic government increases [39]. In the perspective of mobile government facilities, citizen motive to use is an inseparable part of the citizen perceived value variable and is also a determining factor for the sustainability of mobile government [40]. Meanwhile, according to Alarabiat et al. [41], citizen motive is a moderating variable for citizens who engage in government social media.
Faithfulness is the long-term ability of society to reuse the facilities provided. Faithfulness provides long-term merits to service providers and can also provide assurance [42][43][44]. For this reason, citizen responsibility is needed to maintain good relations with service providers [45]. From the commerce side, the motive of citizen participation needs to be considered if you want to achieve good information distribution [46]. The participation motive is society’s desire to engage in activities carried out by the government [47], which, in turn, provide advice and service recommendations [17]. This study uses motive and faithfulness as citizen behavior that reflects the utilization of the combination of electronic government quality with connection quality. Dealing with the construct definition as we explained earlier, here is further explanation about it as it is shown in Table 1 below:
Table 1. Construct definitions.
Construct | Definition | Source |
---|---|---|
Relationship Quality (RQ) | The level of the whole valuation of the force of a connection between electronic government quality domains to the citizen as the electronic government users. | Crosby et al. [9], Palmatier et al. [10], and Tajvidi et al. [11] |
Public Intention (PPI) | Citizen compliance to use an electronic government after perceiving connection quality and electronic government quality. | Dodds et al. [48] and Bonsón Ponte et al. [49] |
Public Loyalty (PL) | Citizen compliance to be a faithful and committed citizen after perceiving electronic government quality and connection quality. |
Flavián et al. [42] and Zhang et al. [50] |
Full Online Service (FOS) | Citizen concept-related electronic government strategy of modern and their concept when electronic government full online facilities. | Assar et al. [51] |
Social Media Integration (SMI) | Measuring the citizen social networking activities and understanding their concept towards electronic government service. | Bonsón et al. [52] |
Mobile Service Combination (MSI) | Measuring citizen concept toward integrated mobile government service and their understanding. | Al-Hujran [53], Zamzami and Mahmud [54] |
Personalized User Account (PUA) | Measuring and understanding citizen concept related to a personalized user account in electronic government service. | Thongpapanl and Rehman Ashraf [55], Liao et al. [56] |
Electronic Participation Service Integration (PSI) | Measuring citizen opinion of e-participation service combination in electronic government service. | Zheng et al. [57] and Themistocleous et al. [58] |
Currentness of Public Information (CPI) | Understanding citizen awareness of the current situation. | Lee and Kozar [59], Smith [60], Dragulanescu [61], and Lakeworth [62] |
This entry is adapted from the peer-reviewed paper 10.3390/su13137464