Does E-Government Measure Up to E-Business? Comparing End User Perceptions of U.S. Federal Government and E-Business Web Sites

Th e primary justifi cation for the move toward e-government, an electronic channel of service delivery that has proven tremendously successful in the private sector, ... is the belief that it holds considerable potential for positively transforming government service delivery in a manner that is consistent with recent market-centered theories of public sector reform. Th is paper examines the federal government’s success in implementing and providing high-quality service through e-government, something that has received very little attention. We defi ne quality from the perspective of the end users of federal agency Web sites, as measured through customer survey data. Using data from the American Customer Satisfaction Index, we compare the performance of federal agency Web sites across a range of relevant variables with a private sector equivalent, e-business Web sites. Our fi ndings suggest that federal e-government Web sites are not yet, in the aggregate, providing the same level of quality as their e-business counterparts. We also fi nd signifi cant variability among federal agencies. We discuss the implications of these fi ndings for e-government performance measurement, performance benchmarking, and the market-centered theories of administrative reform that are driving e-government and similar transformations of government practice.