Study on e-government services quality: the integration of online and offline services

Purpose: E-Government, as a new bond linking the government and the public, has gradually become the focus of innovation in government services. The paper focuses on the e-Government service quality issues from the perspective of users. Design/methodology/approach: From the aspects of online service quality perception and offline service quality perception, based on IS Success model and SERQUAL model, e-Government Services Quality model has been set up with information quality, system quality and service quality as key factors. Then, the survey method was applied to collect data and then to test the model. Findings: It was found that users’ perception of offline service quality has a significant effect on improving their perception of online service quality, and online service quality perception has a significant effect on public satisfaction of e-Government services; information clarity, system security and stability, interactive services and “one-stop” services all have a significant effect on public satisfaction of e-Government services. However, offline service quality perception has certain positive effect on public satisfaction of e-Government services but not dramatically. Research limitations/implications: Mobile e-Government as an important direction of the development of e-Government, in the future, we will study more about mobile e-Government services channels. Originality/value: This study further develops the theory of information system service quality, and also provides a theoretical reference for government departments. On the one hand, based on the characteristics of e-government system, information quality, system quality and service quality in the previous system service model are further discussed; on the other hand, both online and offline services are taken into consideration in the information system service model, thus establishing the e-government services quality model and making an indepth study of the integration effect of online and offline services. Its conclusions can be references for the application of traditional information system service model in the field of e-government.Peer Reviewe

Quality of (Digital) Services in e-Government

Internet growth in the nineties supported government ambition to provide better services to citizens through the development of Information and Communication Technologies based solutions. Thanks to the Lisbon conference, which in 2000 covered and investigated this topic, e-government has been recognized as one of the major priorities in Public Administration innovation process. As a matter of\ud fact in the last 10 years the number of services provided to citizens through Information and Communication Technologies has increased rapidly. Nevertheless the increasing rate, the access and usage of digital services do not follow the same trend. Nowadays Public Administrations deliver many electronic services which\ud are seldom used by citizens. Different reasons contribute to the highlighted situation.\ud The main assumption of the thesis is that quality of e-government digital services strongly affects real access to services by citizens. According to the complexity of quality in e-government, one of the main challenges was to define a suitable quality model. To reach such aim, domain-dependent characteristics on the services delivery have been investigated. The defined model refers to citizen,\ud technology and service related quality characteristics. Correspondingly a suitable way to represent, assess, and continuously improve services quality according to\ud such domain requirements has been introduced.\ud Concerning the service related quality aspects a methodology and a tool permitting to formally and automatically assess the quality of a designed service with\ud respect to the quality model has been defined. Starting from an user friendly notation, both for service and quality requirements, the proposed methodology has\ud been implemented as an user friendly tool supported by a mapping from user friendly notations to formal language. The tool allows to verify formally via model checking, if the given service satisfies one by one the quality requirements addressed by the quality model.\ud Additionally in some case an unique view on e-government service quality is quite useful. A mathematical model provides a single value for quality starting from the assessment of all the requirements defined in the quality model. It relies on the following activities: homogeneity, interaction and grouping.\ud A set of experiments has been performed in order to validate the goodness of the work. Services already implemented in a local Public Administration has\ud been considered. Literature review and domain experts knowledge were the main drivers of this work. It proofs the goodness of the quality model, the application of formal techniques in the complex field of study such as e-government and the quality aggregation via the mathematical model.\ud This thesis introduces advance research in e-government by providing the contributions that quality oriented service delivery in Public Administration promotes services used by the citizens. Further applications of the proposed approaches could be investigated in the areas of practical benchmarking and Service Level Agreement specification

Domestic water pricing with household surveys : a study of acceptability and willingness to pay in Chongqing, China

In determining domestic water prices, policy makers often need to use information about the demand side rather than only relying on information about the supply side. Household surveys have frequently been employed to collect demand-side information. This paper presents a multiple bounded discrete choice household survey model. It discusses how the model can be utilized to collect and analyze information about the acceptability of different water prices by different types of households, as well as households'willingness to pay for water service improvement. The results obtained from these surveys can be directly utilized in the development of water pricing and subsidy policies. The paper also presents an empirical multiple bounded discrete choice study conducted in Chongqing, China. In this case, domestic water service quality was seriously inadequate, but financial resources were insufficient to improve service quality. With a survey of about 1,500 households in five suburban districts in Chongqing Municipality, this study shows that a significant increase in the water price is feasible as long as the poorest households can be properly subsidized and certain public awareness and accountability campaigns can be conducted to make the price increase more acceptable to the public. The analysis also indicates that the order in which hypothetical prices are presented to respondents systematically affects their answers, and should be taken into account when designing survey instruments.Town Water Supply and Sanitation,Water Supply and Sanitation Governance and Institutions,Environmental Economics&Policies,Water and Industry,Water Supply and Systems

Factors influencing information service quality of the information platform of Wenzhou Municipal People's Hospital

Along with the global trend of informatization, Internet has become a new mainstream media form following such forms as print media, television and broadcast media, via which people can access information services. As a country with the largest number of netizens around the world, China enjoys improving social information services based on the Internet. With such a large quantity of network users, it is inevitable for China's hospitals at various levels to provide patients and the public with information services by setting up their own official websites. This research investigates the factors affecting the information service quality of Wenzhou People's Hospital (WZPH) and by means of Delphi method, statistical analysis and other research methods, formulates the Evaluation Indicator System for the Information Service Quality of WZPH's Information Platform. The research applies this system to the empirical research on the information service quality of the hospital's website and then makes a comparative analysis between the research results and traffic data of the websites of other hospitals over the same period. Next, the research identifies the factors affecting the information service quality of WZPH's website and finds out how the hospital may increase its website users and traffic through improving its service quality. This research starts with the determination of the objectives, significance, research problems, framework, contents and methods of the research. In the following literature review, the research sorts out papers on hospital websites and theories on service quality, users' information needs and customer satisfaction in a systematic way. Based on the literature review as well as expert consultations and theoretical review, the research determines the approach to examining the information service quality of WZPH's information platform and works out the initial set of evaluation dimensions and indicators of the information service function and quality of the hospital's website. Then, via two rounds of expert consultations, the research figures out the weights of these indicators and further assigns values to each of them. On this basis, the research establishes a research framework and a comprehensive evaluation model for the information service quality of WZPH's information platform. In the end, the research conducts two surveys respectively on the information service quality of WZPH's information platform before and after its overall revision by using Hospital Website Information Service Evaluation Form and Virtual User Questionnaire, and makes a correlation analysis based on the survey results and the flow data of other hospitals' websites over the same period. The analysis draws a conclusion that the website of WZPH, as the information platform of the hospital, is the only carrier to deliver information service, thus playing a vital role in WZPH's overall service quality. In other words, the website of WZPH affects the hospital's overall service quality to a large extent. The comprehensive service function of WZPH's website are important to the quality improvement of the hospital's information service and directly affect the information service quality, the number of users as well as utilization rate of the website

An Exploratory Study of Employees’ Perceptions on Service Quality in the Examinations Council of Zambia

Service quality has been recognised as an important aspect for service organisations, however few studies have focused on service quality in public organisation, especially from the employee’s point of view. Employee perceptions are considered vital to the service quality in organisations as employees directly interact with customers and provide the services. Thus, this thesis aims to provide an understanding of how employees perceive service quality in public organization and to gain deeper insight of the dimensions influencing employees’ perception by using SERVQUAL instrument, a model used to measure service quality, as theoretical base. Considering the aim of the study, a qualitative strategy was used in order to reveal different aspects of service quality from employees. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with employees who were involved in service delivery at service centers of Examinations Council of Zambia. This study found ten themes on how employees perceive service quality. Five themes were revealed from the five original dimensions of SERVQUAL which are Tangibles, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance and Empathy and the remaining five were based on the new dimensions added, revealed from the empirical data, analysis, and literature reviews which are Standard Operating Procedures (SOP), Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Employees Empowerment, Convenience and Manpower. This thesis indicates that service quality is a complex issue which should be researched using special sets of dimensions depending on the organization’s setting. In a practical view, the ten dimensions are needed to be addressed in the organisation in order to deliver a quality service. Over and above this, the study thereby enhances knowledge regarding the employees’ perception on service quality and further contributes to the service quality literature in employees’ point of view

Gaya Kepemimpinan Kepala Desa dalam Pelayanan Publik: Studi Kasus Kabupaten Indragiri Hilir Riau

The study objective is to reveal the relation between the village head leadership style and financial factor and its effect to the quality of public service in Indragiri HilirRegency, Riau Province. The leadership style of the village heads of the Indragiri HilirRegency is studied because the villages do not imply the qualified public servicestandard. The villages' condition is related with leadership style and financial factor andits relation to the public service. The village heads' leadership style is the one that movesthe improvement of public service, and theorically based on situational leadership theoryfrom Blanchard. On the other hand, financial factor supports the performance ofqualified public service. This qualitative study used descriptive methods, particularlysurvey. Data was collected by interviewing and documentation study. Interview revealedrespondents' perception about the relation between the leadership style and publicservice, while documentation study revealed information and data on finance and itsrelation with public service. This study analysed primary quantitative data based oninterview and secondary qualitative data from documentation study. Quantitative data isanalysed in order to test the hypothesis of the relation between leadership style andpublic service using Spearman rho correlation test and chi square test. Meanwhile theeffect of leadership style and financial factor to the quality of public service is measuredby regression technique using T-test, F-test, and coefficient of determination. Thepopulation, the number of villages is 170, 17 of which are used as sample, with 646respondents representing 5780 people in the 170 villages. The result of this study isexpected to theoretically contribute to the development of public administration studyand for the improvement of the quality of public service effectively. Practically, thisstudy can give recommendation for the local administration and village heads inimproving the quality of public service in Indragiri Hilir Regency, Riau Province. Thepublic service can be improved by training and conducting workshop in technical andmanagerial skills. It also can be a model of leadership style in order to improve effectivepublic service in Indragiri Hilir Regency

Measuring eGovernment Portal Management on the Local Level: Results from a Survey of Public Administration Officials

Given the importance of eGovernment portals as an integral access interface of modern public service provision, this contribution concentrates on the issue of the dimensions and derived success factors of these information systems. Starting with the DeLone & McLean IS success model and the resource-based view as foundations, this article conceptualizes the important success factors of eGovernment portals and then integrates these into a research model. The empirical results show the importance of the different dimensions of eGovernment Portal Management as well as the development of eGovernment portals so far. For public service portals on the local level the key management dimensions are information, system, service and privacy management. The evaluation of these dimensions as well as perceived internal and external success in public administration institutions complement user-based quality assessments and highlight organizational strengths and weaknesses

Data Structure Model on the Quality of Public Passenger Transport Services by Bus in Vietnam

The system of managing public passenger transport services (PPTS) by bus is a complex system, involving infrastructure, facilities, management and service communication activities between passengers and transport systems. In particular, quality information is the most important factor, providing necessary data for analysis, setting out measures to improve quality to meet the needs of passengers and meet the requirements of related parties. According to the peculiarity of the service, this study selects a database structure model to guide the process of computerizing the management of quality of PPTS by bus in urban areas in Vietnam. The results show that four database systems reflecting the quality information of the infrastructure, means of transport, transport operation and passenger service and each database system is structured by components that ensure proper implementation of QM process according to the continuous quality improvement cycle. The components of each database system are dispersed according to the scope of management to ensure the consistency for the quality management process and facilitate the collection, processing and distribution of information of related parties. Keywords: Quality, transport services, public passengers, Vietnam. DOI: 10.7176/JESD/10-10-13 Publication date:May 31st 201

Measures to Improve Information Services Provision in Selected Public University Libraries in Western Kenya.

Public university libraries globally in this dynamic and innovative environment strives to satisfy their users’ needs. From time immemorial they have been essential constituents of scholastic enterprise and have been established alongside academic institutions Empirical literature on library service standards assessments and user’s satisfaction is extensive but controversial. The digital age is also changing the methods of producing and disseminating information with a greater emphasis on electronic service delivery. To retain relevance, libraries are expected to adapt to new technologies and position themselves as important learning organizations where services continually change and improve to meet the information demand of all the user community. Most studies in Kenya relating to academic libraries service quality enhancement and awareness is scanty and library service goals and objectives are not in tandem with its stakeholders. Consequently there is need to provide scientific knowledge and suggestive solutions on library information services. The purpose of this study is therefore to assess the predictive variables of library performance in public university libraries of Western Kenya and suggestive measures to improve library information service to the user community. The specific objective of the study includes; assessing compliance of public university libraries in Western Kenya to statutory standards for information services provision; to assess the user satisfaction in relation to information service provision of public university libraries in Western Kenya and to identify the challenges to service provision of information services. The study adopted gap analysis model. Quantitative and qualitative research design was used with a sample size of 507 respondents. Data was collected through questionnaire, interview, observation and document review. The results was presented by the use of percentages, graphs and frequency tables. The findings indicated that library information services for the normal and persons with disabilities users were below normal satisfaction level, inadequacy in funds for physical expansion, service personnel, low competency in service personnel, weak management policies