An Empirical Investigation of eGovernment Adoption Using a Commitment-Based Model

The implementation of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the public sector has the potential to produce countless benefits. Government administrators are aggressively seeking ways to enhance the development and implementation of more effective and efficient government services. One electronic government initiative that has rapidly grown in importance and popularity is electronic tax filing. Every year, United States (U.S) citizens flock to e-file vendors to submit their taxes in hopes of a quicker, simpler, less painful process. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the e-file vendors are jointly interested in retaining existing users, because citizens' outright adoption and continuous consumption of the associated products and services is critical to long-term success. Thus, continuous use of e-file by citizens is of supreme importance to the IRS as well as customer retention is of the utmost importance to vendors. Thus this topic is of research interest, both theoretically and practically. This study explores the factors that contribute to e-file adoption. Specifically, we develop a research model with a theoretical foundation coming from several theories of commitment to understand how and individual's decision to continue to use a website is influenced by their commitment towards e-file and the vendor that supports it. Results of a multiple linear regression analysis derived from data collected from 249 U.S. taxpayers and users of a variety of e-file vendors indicate that affective commitment, quality of alternatives, and trust were significantly associated with an individual's behavioral intention to e-file. The proposed model explains over seventy percent of the variance in a citizen's intention to re-use an e-file service. Implications for citizen/customer retention and decision-making strategies are discussed.