The Social Perception of Government and its Effect on the Use of E-Government

Abstract

The current research examines the relationship between e-government website evaluation and the variables associated with the usage of e-government services (user satisfaction and intention to use) with basic social perceptions, warmth and competence, toward the government as the mediators (Fiske, 1993; Fiske et al., 2002). The results show that transparency, information suitability, and security of the webstie are associated with perception of warmth, while service quality was associated with perception of competence. Citizen engagement of the website was directly linked to individuals’ intention to use the government website. Lastly, social perceptions were found to predict user satisfaction with the e-government website and future intention to use the website, confirming the mediational effect of social perceptions. Our findings suggest that the government agency is not simply viewed as a service provider but also as a social entity that encompasses both warmth and competence from the perspective of citizens, and these social perceptions impact their use of e-government services.