Public E-Participation Services as a Cure for Declining Voter Turnout: Acceptance Model Research Using PLS-SEM

Abstract

Purpose of this paper is to identify factors influencing the intention to use and develop a model for measuring the intention to use public e-participation services. As a added value, paper is examining the structure of needs for different levels of public e-participation services. As for the methodology, this paper provides an empirical evaluation of Davis's Technology Acceptance Model extended with non-technical constructs of the Planned Behavior Theory and Trust Model. Validity and hypotheses of the newly proposed multidimensional structural model were tested using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling. PLS-SEM research results significantly confirmed three out of seven hypotheses. There is a positive and statistically significant correlation between “Expected usefulness”, “Expected behaviour control” and “Trust in the Internet” with the intention to use public e-participation services (p<0.05). Concerning demand-side, research results demonstrate that the majority of the respondents prefers public e-participation services of a higher level of complexity.