Enhancing the case for Electronic Government in developing nations: A people-centric study focused in Saudi Arabia

The research reported in this paper takes a step back and focuses on the acceptability of e-gov by individuals. It is a people-centric approach to determine the overall acceptability of e-gov to people in a developing country, Saudi Arabia. Although this research may be generalizable to other situations, the primary intention of this project is to shed light on how to approach and manage implementation projects in developing nations.

Government Information Quarterly 26 (2009) 137–143 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Government Information Quarterly j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w e l s ev i e r c o m / l o c a t e / g ov i n f Enhancing the case for Electronic Government in developing nations: A people-centric study focused in Saudi Arabia Marvine Hamner a,⁎, Fahad Al-Qahtani b a b George Washington University, School of Engineering and Applied Science, Engineering Management and Systems Engineering, 1776 G Street, Suite 110, Washington, DC 20052, USA Faculty of Computer Science and Information Research Center, King Saud University, 11543 Riyadh, Saudi Arabia a r t i c l e i n f o Available online November 2008 Keywords: eGovernment Technology acceptance model Theory of reasoned action Individual utility a b s t r a c t The pace of implementing Electronic Government (E-Gov) is rapidly increasing However, despite high levels of investment, a broad range of applications, and various methods of access relatively low levels of various methods of access, relatively low levels of usage (and even familiarity with e-gov) are still common For example, in Canada, long recognized as a leader in implementing e-gov, less than 27% of Canadians used EGov during the past 12 months and 81% of c non-users report a low level of familiarity with either federal or provincial governmental services available through e-gov ( Canada, 2004) Or, consider the showcase e-gov Gyandoot project in the Dhar district in central India, whose population is estimated at 1.7 million Even after implementing e-gov in a showcase project for the rural poor, a study by the Center for Electronic Governance, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad concluded that this model of “government to citizen” service delivery has serious sustenance problems (,World Bank, 2004) The research reported in this paper takes a step back and focuses on the acceptability of e-gov by individuals It is a people-centric approach to determine the overall acceptability of e-gov to people in a developing country, Saudi Arabia Although this research may be generalizable to other situations, the primary intention of this project is to shed light on how to approach and manage implementation projects in developing nations © 2008 Elsevier Inc All rights reserved Introduction It has been said that e-gov can provide substantial benefits for citizens, businesses, and governments around the world (Jaeger & Thompson, 2003) E-Gov has been promoted as a key to “radically shrinking communications and information costs, maximizing speed, broadening reach, and eradicating distance” (Norris, 2001) Unfortunately, research has shown that at best, e-gov is only making incremental advances, that progress may be best described as “edging up,” regardless of location There are many explanations for this, e.g political, institutional, or technological, which are outside the scope of this research Among other things, West (2005) found that: • • • • “19% of government websites offer services that are fully executable online 89% of websites this year provide access to publications and 53% have links to databases 18% (up from 14% in 2004) show privacy policies, while 10% have security policies (up from 8% in 2004) 19% of government websites have some form of disability access, meaning access for persons with disabilities, up from 14% in 2004 ⁎ Corresponding author E-mail addresses: mphamner@gwu.edu (M Hamner), fahadalqahtani@hotmail.com (F Al-Qahtani) 0740-624X/$ – see front matter â 2008 Elsevier Inc All rights reserved doi:10.1016/j.giq.2007.08.008 ã • Countries vary enormously in their overall e-government performance based on our analysis The most highly ranked nations include Taiwan, Singapore, United States, Hong Kong, China, Canada, Germany, Australia, and Ireland There are major differences in e-government performance based on region of the world In general, countries in North America score the highest, followed by Asia, Western Europe, Pacific Ocean Islands, Middle East, Eastern Europe, South America, Russia and Central Asia, Central America, and Africa” (West, 2005) In addition, while much of the work that has been done on developing e-gov has occurred on what Reddick (2004) called the “supply side” (the development of systems such as infrastructure and policies that constitute “what is available”), while less work explores the “demand side” (whether or not people would actually use e-gov if it were made available) Studies examining the “demand side” have considered what information governments have made available “that people want” (such as databases) and what services people might want use (e.g paying taxes online, Holmes, 2001) However, this still does not consider why people would use e-gov over other ways of fulfilling their need for government services or obligations By focusing attention on whether or not people would use e-gov if it were available this study considers that question Note that because it does not focus on systems, e.g hardware or software, this is a slightly different question than that of technology acceptance Take for 138 M Hamner, F Al-Qahtani / Government Information Quarterly 26 (2009) 137–143 example, the notion that in some parts of the world people may have to wait in lines for days to renew their driver's license This, in and of itself, has nothing to with “how” people accomplish this task — only that they Other people in other parts of the world who grumble about having to wait for a couple of hours may find that idea ridiculous (AAMVA, 2001) But if that is the only way of accomplishing a task, “obtaining what people need,” then that is what people will This statement points to the core result of this research: that people will act in a way to fulfill their needs regardless of geographic location, nationality, gender, race, religion, political system, and so on This is a direct manifestation of the concept of personal utility In this regard, this study has found that despite many issues facing individuals, such as the perception of security or the lack thereof, the development, implementation and usage of e-gov is no different If it were available and if it were to their benefit people would use e-gov Saudi Arabia is one of the developing countries that are attempting to establish e-gov in its daily communication with citizens, local departments and other countries The primary objective of this research was to examine whether the people in Saudi Arabia would use e-gov if it were available This research uses correlation and descriptive techniques to analyze its data A decision model was created to analyze the attitudes, knowledge and skills residents would need to have to support e-gov The model functioned well, showing the flow of choices respondents could make regarding whether they would use e-gov While the data collected did display some unexpected results, none of those results substantially worked against the model Overall, it appears that people in Saudi Arabia would use e-gov Of 453 valid responses from random people, 65% (294) would be willing to use e-gov, had the skills, and considered the means (kiosk, home PC, work PC, and internet café) useable and secure The overwhelming conclusion of this research is that the people of Saudi Arabia would use e-gov, if it becomes available Individual motivation for deciding that e-gov is acceptable is discussed in the paragraphs immediately below What will remain to be determined is why there exists such a large difference between the conclusions reached by this research and the actual usage of e-gov 1.1 The Theory of Reasoned Action The surveys conducted for the study in Saudi Arabia measured individual beliefs and attitudes regarding e-gov and areas related to the government This study is a predictive study that examines attitudes and beliefs of individuals prior to the existence of e-gov Understanding and predicting behaviors is at the base of the Theory of Reasoned Action created by Fishbein and Ajzen (1975) The Theory of Reasoned Action predicts an individual's behavior based on their beliefs and society's norms In brief, it says, “Generally speaking, the theory is based on the assumption that human beings are usually quite rational and make systematic use of information available to them We not subscribe to the view that human social behavior is controlled by unconscious motives or overpowering desires, nor we believe that it can be characterized as capricious or thoughtless Rather, we argue that people consider the implications of their actions before they decide to engage or not engage in a given behavior For this reason we referred to our approach as ‘a theory of reasoned action’” (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975) This theory says that there are two basic components that make up how an individual will act The first component is a person's nature, or personal beliefs The second component is societal beliefs According to Fishbein and Ajzen (1975), “The personal factor is the individual's positive or negative evaluation of performing the behavior; this factor is termed attitudes towards the behavior.” Fishbein and Ajzen (1975) also write that, “The second factor is the person's perception of the social pressures put on him to perform or not perform the behavior in question” 1.2 The Technology Acceptance Model Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use and User Acceptance of Technology is a later work that is built on The Theory of Reasoned Action and was written by Fred D Davis (Davis, 1985) Davis' theory was that a number of things come together to determine whether or not a given technology will or will not be accepted The model created by Davis was called the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) Davis defined five (5) elements that are a part of the Technology Acceptance Model: • • • • • External variable Perceived usefulness Perceived ease of use Behavioral intention Behavior The Technology Acceptance Model is shown below in Fig In any new technology, all user variables are ultimately external Given a new technology, all impressions are new These new, external variables provide input into perceived usefulness, as well as perceived ease of use First, with regard to perceived usefulness and the issue of e-gov in Saudi Arabia, this study addresses the fact that one of the primary goals of a successful implementation of e-gov would be to make it highly useful and readily available Some of the factors cited by study participants that would make e-gov useful and available are: equal access to government services by all people everywhere, immediate access to government services any time and any day, convenient locations for access to government services, and accuracy of data involved in transactions with the government Additionally, this study collected information regarding preferred access locations and method of access These issues relate to the Technology Acceptance Model above in terms of perceived ease of use Clearly, perceived ease of use is critical to a successful implementation of e-gov in Saudi Arabia If any offerings of E-Gov are widely thought to be difficult to use or access, then the initiative is likely to fail, as it would likely result in negative behavioral intentions 1.3 Individual utility and decision-making The utility of e-gov extends benefits to government and to individuals One of the potential benefits of e-gov is a lower cost of government This is generally irrelevant to this study, because individuals pay no income or sales taxes in Saudi Arabia Therefore, any benefits of lower government cost relates very little to the individual The Technology Acceptance Model as it relates to Fig Technology Acceptance Model (Davis, 1985) M Hamner, F Al-Qahtani / Government Information Quarterly 26 (2009) 137–143 Table Resident survey data returned Distributed Returned Invalid Valid 900 558 105 453 individuals, indicates that greater personal utility creates a positive behavioral intention by an individual This means that benefits identified from the use of a new technology can be directly related to a greater intention to use that technology For individuals, the benefits from E-Gov include: • Reduction in over-the-counter costs associated with registration and submission of forms • Reduction in errors and greater accuracy of data, as human error is reduced • The ability to communicate directly and quickly with institutions • Eliminating the need to appear in-person at government agencies • Providing government services to citizens 24-hours-a-day, 7-daysa-week • Delivering government services from any place The items listed above are strong reasons for individuals to accept E-Gov In addition, perceived ease of use also has input into perceived usefulness That is, if a technology is considered very useful, but extremely difficult to use, then perceived usefulness is decreased and the behavioral intention is less likely to result in the technology being accepted This underscores the need to create easy and intuitive interfaces An inherent component of this research is individual decision-making under a variety of social influences Decisionmaking can be viewed as “…a process of choosing among alternative courses of action for the purpose of attaining a goal or goals” (Turban & Aronson, 2001) Thus, decision-making as a process that inherently involves cultural patterns and beliefs and is supported by The Theory of Reasoned Action discussed above However, effects of social influences are not directly considered in this research That is, while the question of whether or not cultural, religious, ethnic, or other beliefs impact the accept- 139 ability of E-Gov is obviously relevant, it is the overall acceptability in terms of an individual maximizing their personal utility that is considered in this research Focusing this research in this way implies that the responses of individuals with respect to the acceptability of E-Gov may be similar regardless of whether that individual is in a developing nation or a highly industrialized nation Research methodology 2.1 Research design This research uses correlation and descriptive research to analyze its data Determining the correlation is useful for discovering links between variables and is discussed below Descriptive research involves exploring previous study efforts and published documents that offer explanation or insight into observed results According to the Center for Applied Research in Educational Technology, “Descriptive Research typically use[s] data derived from surveys, case studies, or more qualitative methods for gathering information to inform the conclusions and recommendations of the study or report.” (CARET, 2003) That is, other published work may offer an explanation or bolster conclusions regarding why certain things are observed It is, therefore, useful to include related work 2.2 Correlation research A correlation is “a statistical term used when describing the relationship between the quantities of two different ‘things’” (Anderson, 1997) A correlation is a numeric value between −1.0 and 1.0 that indicates the degree of relationship between two factors As a correlation result approaches 1.0 or −1.0, a strong relationship is indicated The closer a correlation is to zero indicates that less of a relationship between variables is shown A positive correlation means that as one factor increases, the other factor also increases Negative correlations indicate that as one factor increases, the other decreases; they would have an inverse relationship Fig Resident decision model for use of e-gov 140 M Hamner, F Al-Qahtani / Government Information Quarterly 26 (2009) 137–143 Table Descriptive statistics for age groups Age group Mean N 18–23 24–30 31–40 41–50 51+ Total 94 89 90 69 24 80 84 104 83 80 41 392 Dependent variable: use of e-government for DMV or passports feedback and adjustment in content The Virginia DMV employees were particularly helpful Other reviewers were: six Saudi Arabian Embassy employees, two social workers, and two psychologists The Saudi Arabian Embassy employees were able to screen the documents for prejudicial language These persons recommended that definitions of the terms kiosk and E-Government be added to the text of the survey instrument The social workers and psychologists read the documents in detail and gave their approval All of these six reviewers approved the general content 2.3 Survey questionnaire design 2.5 Survey return A questionnaire was created for randomly selected residents of Riyadh over 18 years of age Development of the questionnaire (Creative Research Systems, 2003) sought to provide a number of survey items that, when answered, would clearly prove or disprove the fundamental research question (Would people use E-Gov if it was available?) Beyond simply proving or disproving this hypothesis, a number of demographic items were developed to produce supporting information For example, survey items include questions about age, sex, citizenship and level of education It may be possible that there are variations in willingness to try E-Gov across different groups (age, gender, and status of citizenship) This information may be useful in determining why there is an apparent barrier to E-Gov that emerges in the discrepancy between the overwhelmingly positive conclusion of this research and the actual rates of E-Gov usage To implement E-Gov, a wide-sweeping automation effort would have to be undertaken This would require a large capital investment as well as increasing numbers of personnel who are computer, network, and internet literate The survey was distributed to respondents randomly at various locations in Riyadh during September of 2003 (as shown in Table 1) The distribution locations included shopping malls and various public meetings We distributed 900 resident surveys, and 558 were returned to us Of these, 453 resident surveys were determined to be valid Surveys were deemed invalid if they could not be read, had excessive selections, or lacked selections for required answers 2.4 Data validity 3.2 Resident decision model Initially the survey was validated by submitting it to a collection of fourteen people who could provide expert feedback or who worked in fields examined in the proposed study Four of these people were DMV employees working for the State of Pennsylvania and the Commonwealth of Virginia Through their existing employment and relative standing in the respective Departments of Motor Vehicles, they could shed light on issues or errors not anticipated by the researcher The results obtained from these reviews of preliminary surveys resulted in significant The resident decision model outlines a sequence of choices which detail how E-Gov would be accepted or rejected, factoring in general desire, computer skills, internet knowledge, awareness of availability, and security Ten hypotheses were included in this study which in turn forecast ten different relationships The first five hypotheses forecast positive relationships to exist between owning a computer, youth, education, computer skills, internet knowledge, and a willingness to use e-government The first level of the random survey model (Desire to use E-Government?) separates those with and without a desire to use E-Gov It is anticipated that those respondents who are in the best position to use computers and internet technology will indicate a willingness to use E-Gov In addition, Hypothesis 10 predicts that those who have had difficulty with people at either of the two departments in question would be part of the group most willing to try a computer interface with E-Gov The second level of the random respondent model (Have computer and Internet skills) is not in the critical path to acceptance of E-Gov Rather, it enumerates the access methods respondents are Results 3.1 Research models The Correlation Analysis Method, as described earlier, was used to interpret the survey data This research is a forecast study The unique data to be examined in this study was survey survey data concerning various attitudes held by random respondents This study compared the survey data against a logical model which anticipates various logical chains dealing with the survey responses Table Descriptive statistics for education level Fig Estimated marginal means — use of e-government for DMV or passports by Age group Highest education level Mean N Less than HS High school Undergraduate Masters/professional Doctoral Total 72 78 84 90 1.00 80 65 165 147 10 392 Dependent variable: use of e-government for DMV or passports M Hamner, F Al-Qahtani / Government Information Quarterly 26 (2009) 137–143 likely to choose Generally, they break down into access from a personal or work computer versus public terminal (kiosk) access Hypothesis indicates that users with their own relevant computer skills would choose their own personal computers versus a public terminal Conversely, it could be stated that those without computers or adequate computer skills would be required to use kiosks At the third level of the model (Access to E-Government), Hypotheses 3–5 predict higher levels of knowledge and skill will cause a person to prefer E-Gov access from a personal computer A lack of skill and knowledge would leave a person desiring to use E-Gov only via kiosk access Hypothesis predicts a critical factor: easy access Ease of access will be a critical factor in the acceptability of E-Gov Those who not believe they will have any easy access to kiosks or the internet may not use E-Gov At the fourth level of the model (Confident of security and privacy?), a critical branch is present Hypothesis predicts that those who have little or no confidence in the security of technology will not want to use E-Gov Trust is a fundamental requirement for any willing transaction Lacking trust, one could expect few people to find a new form of access to government acceptable Should people largely accept E-Gov on other grounds (skill, education, and access) and reject it based upon distrust of technology, this would provide extremely useful information Knowing that, a government could design and build systems and advertising that specifically reflect the trustworthiness of E-Gov The resident data model functioned well, showing the flow of choices respondents could make regarding whether they would use E-Gov While the data collected did display some unexpected results, none of those results substantially worked against the model Overall, it appeared that people in Saudi Arabia would use E-Gov In addition, a relatively large number of respondents indicated that kiosks were secure and desired platforms for accessing E-Gov In the resident model, kiosks were predicted to be an alternative to PCs and the internet, useful only to those with no internet skills This assumption proved false Kiosks were looked upon as simply another platform for accessing E-Gov, desired by a variety of respondents Fig illustrates the choices made by resident respondents Fig shows that of 453 valid responses, 312 would initially be willing to use E-Gov Of this 312, only 35 did not already have Internet skills, and thus (presumably) would not be able to use PC and/or internet access to E-Gov This left only kiosks for those Fig Estimated marginal means — use of e-government for DMV or passports by education level 141 Table Descriptive statistics for knowledge of the Internet Knowledge of internet Mean N Expert Average Minimal None Total 1.00 85 88 47 80 32 212 74 74 392 Dependent variable: use of e-government for DMV or passports 35 people The remaining 277 respondents desired access to EGov from home, work, and/or internet cafés When asked how they would access E-Gov, and allowed only one choice, internet Cafés had the lowest total (13) Home, kiosk, and work ranked from highest to lowest respectively Home access ranked the highest by far, indicating a well-adopted E-Gov program would likely need a public web presence, easily and effectively accessed from home computers Note that 61 individuals chose the kiosk, compared to the 35 who lacked internet skills and could only use it With respect to security, home ranked as the location where most felt secure accessing E-Gov over the Internet, with 258 of 312 choosing this location Work was felt to be the next most secure location, followed by Kiosk Internet cafés were deemed secure by less than half of respondents Interestingly, only 16 respondents made choices that lead to no location being deemed secure enough to access E-Gov Therefore, this data shows that for a large portion of the Saudi population, some access point could be made available to satisfy their security needs 3.3 Factors affecting individual acceptance of E-Gov • Age For random residents, age and willingness to use E-Government did have a negative relationship It is presumed that youth inspires a stronger interest in the internet and technology (Table 2, Fig 3) • Education level Even though computing is an indispensable part of academia today, the observed data did not support a close relationship between education levels and desire to use EGovernment It appears from the data that E-Government is generally desired, regardless of education level (Table 3, Fig 4) The data does appear to show an increased desire for e-government Fig Estimated marginal means — use of e-government for DMV or passports by knowledge of the Internet 142 M Hamner, F Al-Qahtani / Government Information Quarterly 26 (2009) 137–143 Table Descriptive statistics for feeling secure purchasing on the Internet Secure purchasing on internet Mean N Very secure Secure Insecure Very insecure Total 94 97 89 51 86 16 99 99 43 257 Dependent variable: use of e-government for DMV or passports as education level increases The relationship was not significant, though • Internet knowledge E-Government initiates would likely rely on the internet for much of its delivery of government services Those who feel confident in their use of the internet would naturally be inclined to also use it for e-government (Table 4, Fig 5) • Security E-Government may involve sending sensitive personal data across the internet It is expected that citizens would want to feel safe doing this It was also expected that those who did not feel safe would feel equally unsafe with e-government (Table 5, Fig 6) Comparison of results for developing countries with those of industrialized nations The motivation for individuals to use e-gov will be their personal benefits These include (MOICT, 2002): • Reduction in over-the-counter costs associated with registration and submission of forms • Reduction in errors and greater accuracy of data, as human error is reduced • The ability to communicate directly and quickly with institutions • Eliminating the need to appear in-person at government agencies • Providing government services to citizens 24-hours-a-day, 7-daysa-week • Delivering government services from any place Thus, the answer to the questions, “Despite differences in social influences what would cause individuals to decide to use E-Gov?” or “How are these benefits related to the decision to use E-Gov whether in Saudi Arabia or anywhere else?” is simple: utility People want to receive government services in the simplest and most cost-effective way regardless of where they are E-Gov, whether it is in North America, Europe, or Saudi Arabia, has the potential to provide benefits that increase an individual's personal utility As E-Gov is implemented in Saudi Arabia, the results will likely be very similar to what has already occurred in North America and Europe So while the remaining question, “Why does such a large difference between the conclusions reached by this research and the actual usage of E-Gov exist?” is very complex, the results of this study and reality may simply converge over time That is, assuming that nations not give up on E-Gov in the interim For example, age is potentially a key factor in the acceptability of E-Gov According to the Saudi Arabian Central Department of Statistics, more than 74% of the population is under 35 years old Survey data is consistent with this in that approximately 70% of respondents were under the age of 40 As seen above, age relates directly to the acceptability of E-Gov In general, this is because young people tend to be faster adopters of technology than their elders In a study on this topic, “Uses and attitudes of young people toward technology and mobile telephony,” Joseph Valor wrote: Young people tend to be early adopters of technology, not only in Europe but also in the U.S and Japan Increasing our understanding of youth behavior and attitudes towards technology is therefore not only important from a societal point of view, but identifying the needs of the younger generation will also be critical to understand the new uses of technology in society, which in turn will allow new business opportunities to emerge (Valor & Sieber, 2003) Therefore, assuming that E-Gov becomes available and youth move to adopt it, the future of E-Gov looks much brighter than the present Summary The conclusion of this study is that the people of Saudi Arabia will use E-Gov if it becomes available, although the initial rate of usage may be disappointing Analysis has shown that the residents of Saudi Arabia's largest city, Riyadh, had the willingness and means to use E-Gov Of 453 valid responses 65% (294) are willing to use E-Gov, had the skills, and considered access (kiosk, home PC, work PC and internet Café) useable and secure And, in developing countries where young people are the highest percentage of the population, e.g Saudi Arabia with greater than 74%, future rates of usage will probably increase rather than decrease This would be consistent with trends in internet usage, e.g Saudi Arabian adoption internet users is shown in Table Given the results of this study and the demographics of developing nations, perhaps the most important undertaking for developing nations to succeed in implementing E-Gov will be continuing to educate and train youth in Information Systems such as E-Gov, and related areas Table Saudi Arabian Internet users (KACST, 2004) Fig Estimated marginal means — use of e-government for DMV or passports by feeling secure purchasing on the internet Date Estimated number of users April 2001 December 2001 July 2002 December 2002 September 2003 690,000 900,000 1,110,000 1,453,000 1,462,000 M Hamner, F Al-Qahtani / Government Information Quarterly 26 (2009) 137–143 References American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) (2001) E-Government: A cost model to compare the marginal costs of traditional DMV transaction delivery to an e-government delivery system The AAMVA Electronic Government Working Group Retrieved May 5, 2003 from http://www.aamva.org/Documents/egvCostStudy.pdf Anderson, T P (1997) Correlational statistical significance Retrieved May 9, 2003 from http://www.andersonconsulting.com/org/definition.htm CARET, Center for Applied Research in Educational Technology (2003) Definition of study types Retrieved May 5, 2003 from http://caret.iste.org/RatingStudy.html Creative Research Systems The Survey System A software package Retrieved May 5, 2003 from http://www.surveysystem.com/ssformu.htm Davis, F (1985) A Technology Acceptance Model for empirically testing new end-user information system: Theory and results A doctoral dissertation submitted to the MIT Sloan School of Management, Cambridge, MA Fishbein, M., & Ajzen, I (1975) Belief, attitude, intention and behavior: An introduction to theory and research Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Pub Co Holmes, D (2001) E-Government: eBusiness strategies for government London: Nicholas Brealey Publishing Jaeger, P T., & Thompson, K M (2003) E-government around the world: Lessons, challenges and future directions Government Information Quarterly, Vol 20, 389−394 KACST, King Abdulaziz City for Science & Technology, Usage Statistics (2004) Retrieved September 4, 2004 from http://222.isu.net.sa/index.htm MOICT, Ministry of Information & Communications Technology (2002) Launching EGovernment in Jordan Retrieved May 5, 2003 from http://www.mopc.gov.jo/pdfs/ Jordan%20E-Gov%20Ch4.pdf Norris, P (2001) Digital divide: Civic engagement, information poverty and the Internet world (pp 232) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Reddick, C G (2004) Citizen interaction with e-government: From the streets to servers Government Information Quarterly, Vol 22, 38−57 143 Turban, E., & Aronson, J (1998) Decision support systems and intelligent systems New Jersey: Prentice Hall Valor, J and Sieber, S (2003) Uses and attitudes of young people toward technology and mobile telephony IESE Research Papers D/505, IESE Business School West, D M (2005) Global E-Government, 2005 Providence, RI: Center for Public Policy, Brown University, Working Papers Further reading Canada (2004) Research publication by the Canadian Government Retrieved October from http://www.gol-ged.gc.ca/nr-sp/naday–jouran/presentation2/page10_e.asp World Bank (2004) Research publication by the World Bank retrieved October 7, from http://www1.worldbank.org/publicsector/bnpp/Gyandoot.pdf Dr Marvine Hamner received her D.Sc from Washington University in St Louis, MO She earned her M.S from Purdue University and her B.S from MIT Dr Hamner is currently an Assistant Professor at the George Washington University in Washington, DC Her research focuses on complex, adaptive systems including modeling and simulation with diverse applications including communication networks, organizations and information/knowledge management Prior to her appointment at GWU, she worked as an engineer and engineering manager for a number of years at the Boeing Company and Johns Hopkins University/Applied Physics Laboratory Dr Fahad Al-Qahtani received his D.Sc from George Washington University in Washington, DC Dr Al-Qahtani focused his studies on engineering and technology management  ... it becomes available, although the initial rate of usage may be disappointing Analysis has shown that the residents of Saudi Arabia' s largest city, Riyadh, had the willingness and means to use... undertaking for developing nations to succeed in implementing E-Gov will be continuing to educate and train youth in Information Systems such as E-Gov, and related areas Table Saudi Arabian Internet... between the conclusions reached by this research and the actual usage of e-gov 1.1 The Theory of Reasoned Action The surveys conducted for the study in Saudi Arabia measured individual beliefs and attitudes