Trust, perceived useful, attitude and continuance intention to use e-government service: An empirical study in Taiwan

Abstract

According to the official TDOAS 2009∼2017 survey, the penetration rate of social media in Taiwan has reached a record 96.8%, while the Internet access rate is as high as 99.7%. However, people using government online services access to relevant information has continued to decline over the years, from 50.8% in 2009 to 35.4% in 2017. At the same time, the proportion of e-transaction users has also dropped simultaneously from 30.3% to 27.7%. In particular, only 1.1% of them are interested in government online forums, while the remaining 97.2% are more willing to engage in social media as a source of personal reference. The study aims to explore why are users not interested in accessing e-government services? Are they affected by the popularity of social networking applications? What are the key factors for users to continue to use e-government service? The research framework was adapted from expectation confirmation theory and model (ECT/ECM), technology acceptance model (TAM) with trust theories, in validating attitude measures for a better understanding of continuance intention of using e-government service. In terms of measurement, the assessment used the structural equation modeling method (SEM) to explore the views and preferences of 400 college students on e-government service. The study results identified that perceived usefulness not only plays a full mediating role, it is expected to be the most important ex-post factor influencing user’s intention to continue using e-government service. It also clarifies that the intent to continue to use e-government services is not related to use any alternative means such as social media application.