Forced Virtuality During COVID-19

Abstract

Abstract. Social distancing received top priority during the COVID-19 crisis, resulting in new users of public digital services (PDS) with heterogeneous use motivation. While some users decided to use a PDS voluntarily and independently of COVID-19, others were forced to use PDS because of the COVID-19 lockdown. Based on technology acceptance models, we compared forced users ( N1 = 346) and voluntary users ( N2 = 315) using latent multigroup analysis. First-time users of a PDS ( N = 661) participated in the survey after reporting a crime online to the police. Results showed that forced and voluntary users differed regarding key factors (performance expectancy, effort expectancy, behavioral intention) and antecedents (system trust, ICT self-concept) of technology acceptance with less positive values for forced users. Further, forced users had stronger needs for system trust and usefulness (performance expectancy) than voluntary users, revealing user group-specific predictive values. The lessons learned for PDS design and marketing beyond pandemic times are discussed.