E-participation Service in Saudi Arabian E- government Websites: The Influencing Factors from Citizens’ Perspective

In keeping pace with the rapid developments in information and communication technology, the Saudi government has invested heavily, in recent years, in the development of e-participation services in e-government websites with the aim of enhancing citizens’ interaction with the government and thereby making the latter more responsive and accountable to citizens’ needs. However, despite its significant efforts, a low level of use of the online opportunities by the citizens for interacting with the government is an endemic problem faced by the Saudi government. In contrast, many countries stand in very good positions compared to Saudi Arabia in terms of citizens’ rate of adoption of e-participation services. This suggests that there are influencing factors that have a significant impact on citizens’ intention to use e-participation services in e-government websites in Saudi Arabia. Therefore, this research aims to explore the factors, from a citizen perspective, that affects individuals’ intention to use e-participation services in Saudi Arabian e-government websites. In addressing its objective, this research commenced with a literature investigation which revealed that there are very few previous studies that have specifically examined the antecedents of citizens’ intention to use e-participation services. Much of the existing literature on citizens’ intention to use e-government services have focused predominantly on the transactional services. Additionally, most of these studies have concentrated more on validating popular behavioural models in the context of citizens’ use of e-services rather than looking at contextual factors that could impact individual’s decision to use such services. Therefore, by reviewing different theories and empirical findings, a conceptual framework has been proposed in this study for understanding Saudi citizens’ intention to use eparticipation. The framework consists of five constructs, including, intention to use eparticipation, attitude, trust, website design, and culture. The relationship between these constructs form the basis for the research hypotheses which will be tested using a quantitative research approach. Specifically, a survey will be used for gathering data from a sample of Saudi citizens and statistical methods will be used for analysing the quantitative data generated from the primary research. The findings of this research can assist the Saudi government and governments of other culturally similar countries in developing more effective citizen-centric e-participation services, thus implying that this study has significant practical implications as well.