Impact of the digital divide on e-government: Expanding from channel choice to channel usage

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2016.08.007Get rights and content

Abstract

Many scholars have studied the digital divide, however, often apart from eGovernment research. Therefore, more interdisciplinary research is required as eGovernment can be both hindered by and contribute to the digital divide. First research steps have already been taken, for instance by using access and socioeconomic status as representations for the digital divide. However, the digital divide discipline has developed rapidly and contemporary research findings indicate that, at least in developed countries, not access and socioeconomic status, but digital skills are important representations of the digital divide. Therefore, in order to explore new explanations in channel choice, we incorporated further developed digital skills measurements into eGovernment research channel choice measurements. Accordingly, this research explores the citizen's perspective by studying actual channel use in the Netherlands.

 Results show that, surprisingly, digital skills do neither predict nor relate to choosing the online channel. However, they do predict the degree of satisfaction; the more digitally skilled citizens are, the more satisfied they are with online services. Results also show that the nature of interaction significantly coheres with channel choice: registration correlates with choosing online channels, consultation correlates with choosing offline channels.

 These findings bring us to the thesis that when it comes to the uptake of eGovernment, at least in developed countries, digital skills become less relevant. However, they come into play when it concerns the perceived quality, expressed in terms of satisfaction. This could mean that, in the long run, many citizens are going to use eGovernment anyway, no matter how (un)skilled they are, no matter how complex these services are. As such, we see the emergence of a new important research question in the multidisciplinary domain of eGovernment. Namely, what are the implications of channel use for policy implementation? Because if less digitally skilled citizens are using electronic government services anyway, what happens to policy goals that heavily rely on online services?

Introduction

About two decades ago, governmental agencies had a far too positive outlook on the uptake and increasing usage of electronic service channels. Expectations were that the more cost-efficient electronic service channels would replace the more expensive traditional channels, such as the telephone and front desk (Pieterson & Van Dijk, 2007). However, studies from various countries, such as Switzerland (Berner Fachhochschule & Unisys, 2005), Canada (Erin Research, 2003), the Netherlands (Bongers, Holland, Vermaas, & Vandeberg, 2004), and Australia (Australian Government, 2005) indicate that about ten years ago governmental agencies were still confronted with high numbers of contacts via traditional service channels, i.e. front desk and phone. Further, more recently, we see that citizens in citizen-to-government or entrepreneurs in business-to-government interactions still prefer the telephone or front desk over the website (e.g., Kræmmergaard and Østergaard Madsen, 2015, Reddick and Anthopoulos, 2014, Reddick and Turner, 2012, Van den Boer, 2014). These differences between expectations and reality uncover a gap in preferences both parties have for service channel management (Ebbers, Pieterson, & Noordman, 2008). As a result, Ebbers et al. (2008) proposed an alternative multi-channel management strategy (MCM) including a channel-type-channel-mode model that takes both the citizen's and the government's perspective into account. They subsequently argue that the multi-channel strategies of governments are better based upon task-channel elaboration, as different channels support different tasks. Recently, a study on citizens' channel choice showed that when online applications were mandatory, voice phone-calls were preferred for problem solving related to those mandatory online applications (Kræmmergaard & Østergaard Madsen, 2015). Other scholars found that the Internet is primarily used for information collection and advice retrieval, while office visits are most often used for applications/registrations, and the phone is the main channel to solve individual problems (Reddick & Anthopoulos, 2014). As such, these studies indicate that the task based nature of the interaction is an important determinant in channel choice.

A relatively new perspective that might help explaining channel choice is that of the digital divide (Van Deursen, van Dijk, & Ebbers, 2006). Since research within this perspective is often conducted apart from eGovernment research (Helbig, Gil-García, & Ferro, 2009), catching up is required as eGovernment and digital divide research are intrinsically intertwined as eGovernment policies can be both impeded by and exacerbate the digital divide (Belanger & Carter, 2009). First research steps have already been taken, for instance by studying channel choice using access and socioeconomic status as representations for the digital divide (Reddick, 2005, Reddick et al., 2012, Reddick and Anthopoulos, 2014). While early research on the digital divide focused mainly on a binary classification of physical access, more recent conceptualizations have revealed that one of the factors that appears to be most important is the differential possession of digital skills (Van Deursen & Van Dijk, 2011). The goal of this current paper is twofold. The first goal is to summarize the state-of-the-art in eGovernment research from two perspectives that we believe to be important to explain channel choice: the impact of nature of the interaction on channel choice on the one hand and of digital skills on channel choice on the other hand. The second goal is to empirically test a combination of both perspectives, by testing three guiding hypotheses based on both perspectives.

Section snippets

The role of nature of the interaction and digital skills in channel choice

Pieterson (2009) conducted a very comprehensive study on channel choice. His findings suggest that citizens choose channels that suit their task and its given characteristics best, a so-called task-channel elaboration. The elaboration process depends on (1) complexity and ambiguity of the task on and on (2) the richness characteristics of the channel. This is in line with the earlier proposed multichannel strategy of Ebbers et al. (2008), which was based on three contingency principles. First,

Theoretical framework

The line of reasoning mentioned in former section produces two more or less diverting points of view. The first is that the nature of the interaction or tasks strongly coheres with what channels are chosen by citizens. More specifically, the electronic channel is preferred to perform registrations or transactions and offline channels, such as telephone and front desk, are preferred to consult. The second point of view is that the more digitally skilled citizens get, the more they intend to use

Sample

Data were collected using an online survey. A random sample was drawn from the citizens in the city of The Hague; one of the biggest cities of the Netherlands. A professional marketing research agency conducted the sampling and fieldwork. Participants were recruited via an online panel and received a small monetary reward to participate. Only participants of age 18 years or older were selected. A total of 985 people started the survey, but a selection question ensured only participants who had

Nature of the interaction and channel choice

The first hypothesis states that the nature of the interaction significantly relates to channel choice. In order to determine whether there is a significant association between these two variables, a Chi-square test of independence was conducted. A Chi-square test is designed for analyzing whether or not categorical variables are independent of one another. Categorical variables are always divided into categories, such as the variables nature of the interaction and channel choice. The variable

Discussion

Whilst the fields of digital divide studies and eGovernment studies have been developed concurrently, it is only latterly that scholars have begun to combine the concepts of both fields to further explain adoption and use of eGovernment services. The focus in digital divide research has shifted away from a focus on first-level effects (an access divide) towards a focus on second-level effects (a skills divide) (Van Deursen & Van Dijk, 2011). As such, usage has also become a digital divide

Conclusions, limitations, and future research

In order to explore new explanations in channel choice, we incorporated further developed digital skills measurements into eGovernment research channel choice measurements. Accordingly, this research explored the citizen's perspective by studying actual channel use in the Netherlands. We found that the nature of interaction significantly coheres with channel choice. But results also show that, surprisingly, digital skills do not predict or relate to choosing the online channel. However, digital

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the City of The Hague for their financial support for the data collection of this research. The City of The Hague had no involvement in the study design, analysis, interpretation of the data, writing of the article and in the decision to submit the article for publication.

Prof. dr. Wolfgang Ebbers is a professor in ‘Innovation and Communication of Electronic Government Services’ at University of Twente, Department of Media, Communication and Organization. He is also a principal consultant and business owner and has written numerous scientific and popular publications on e-government, especially on strategies and use of multichannel management.

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  • Cited by (0)

    Prof. dr. Wolfgang Ebbers is a professor in ‘Innovation and Communication of Electronic Government Services’ at University of Twente, Department of Media, Communication and Organization. He is also a principal consultant and business owner and has written numerous scientific and popular publications on e-government, especially on strategies and use of multichannel management.

    Marloes G.M. Jansen is a PhD candidate at Newcastle University (UK) and her dissertation centers around the dynamics between social media, politics, and gender. Previously she conducted research and taught at Northumbria University (UK) and at the University of Twente (NL).

    Dr.ing. Alexander van Deursen is an assistant professor at the University of Twente, Department of Media, Communication and Organization. His research mostly concerns two overlapping themes: digital skills among the general and working population, and digital inequality in contemporary society.

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    Present Address: University of Twente, Drienerlolaan 5, P.O. Boxes 217, 7500 AE, Enschede, the Netherlands.

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