Successful Community Municipal Portal Diffusion: Internal Government Factors and Individual Perceptions

This paper presents findings and research directions of an in-progress study examining the factors affecting successful community municipal portal diffusion. Several community municipal portal sites in the Province of Ontario, Canada are being investigated via questionnaires sent to portal administrators at six portal sites, and web surveys completed by 1,753 end-users at five of these six sites. In the study’s first round, internal government factors shaping the implementation of community municipal portals, as well as usage patterns and end-user demographics, are identified. The study’s second and third rounds use these results to test a new theoretical framework that comprises both internal government factors and individual perceptions. Importantly, information quality is suggested to be a key individual perceptions factor that not only affects successful community municipal portal diffusion, but also plays a pivotal role in mediating the effect of internal government factors on a person’s use of a community municipal portal site.