An Empirical Investigation of the Adoption of Egovernment in Australian Citizens: Some Unexpected Research Findings

Abstract

There has existed a rich research literature on adoption of information technology (IT) in private commercial organizations. Most prior researches in the field are drawn upon two dominant theories: Theory of Reasoned Actions (TRA) (13) and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) (11). However, there has been relatively little research done on adoption of eGovemment in public citizens, which was explored in this study based on the TAM theory. The research findings reported that perceived usefulness (PU), which has been validated to be the most reliable predictor of influencing IT adoption behaviors in private commercial organizations in the research literature, was found not significant in influencing eGovemment adoption in public citizens. This was the unexpected research finding, which questioned the validity of directly extending the TAM theory into studying eGovemment adoption issues in public sectors. Implications of the research findings were discussed.