Adoption of electronic government services among business organizations in Singapore

With the global emergence of public sector information communication initiatives, there has been a growing need for research on factors influencing adoption of e-Government services. To fill up the existing knowledge gap in this area, this paper examines factors influencing adoption of electronic government services among business organizations in Singapore. Drawing on Rogers' Innovation Diffusion Theory and on the literature on network externalities, social influence, and barriers to adoption, this paper develops a theoretical framework and proposes that perceived benefits, management readiness, sensitivity to cost, external pressure, and social influences are positively related to the adoption decision. We tested this framework using survey data from 128 business organizations in Singapore. The results show a significant positive relationship between perceived benefits, external pressure, and social influence and the firms' decision to adopt e-Government services. Some possible implications of our study are that governments need to increase public awareness of direct and indirect benefits of their e-services, to portray e-services as up-to-date, effective and secure, and to put in place various incentives to encourage their adoption. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.