Adoption and Use of Community Municipal Portals

Initial findings from a project examining community municipal portal adoption are reported. The study employs a theoretical model showing a causal effect of organizational factors and portal interface characteristics on a person’s intentions to use a community municipal portal and how individual demographics and perceptions mediate this effect. Six community municipal portals in Ontario, Canada participated. A questionnaire completed by internal portal stakeholders gives background on the portals’ purpose, history, functionality, IT support, and governance. An enduser survey administered to 1,753 respondents polls end-user demographics, perceptions, and behaviors. First phase results give insight on the organizational factors surrounding the implementation of community municipal portals (e.g., partner tensions, governance issues, low end-user involvement, marketing and financial concerns) and how they may influence low usage behaviors exhibited by a narrow demographic. Future phases of the study that further explore the impact of organizational factors and end-user characteristics on portal use are described.