The influence of civic mindedness, trustworthiness, usefulness, and ease of use on the use of government websites

Abstract

Civic mindedness and the perceptions of trustworthiness, usefulness, and ease of use seem to explain much of the effective use of websites. This article discusses the extent to which such factors influence the use of government websites based on a study with 210 citizens who were doing their biometric electoral registration in João Pessoa – a major city in Brazil. With the help of ordinary least squares and quantile regression models, we found that there is mixed influence of those factors on the use of government websites. On average, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use had a significant influence; but for low levels of use, only perceived usefulness had an influence, whereas perceived ease of use had an influence for moderate and high levels of use. In terms of trustworthiness, only the dimension about trust in government had an influence for all levels of use. In terms of civic mindedness, only the dimension about civic engagement had an influence, except for moderate levels of use. Our results reinforce that the development of government websites should focus on the citizens’ individual profiles and levels of use, that is, focus should be directed to the demand side (users) besides merely addressing the legal requirements and the provision of services by the supplier (government).