Electronic participation through social media citizens' acceptance factors at local government level

Tese de Doutoramento em Information System and TechnologyMuitas das iniciativas de Participação Eletrónica (e-Participação) − vistas neste estudo como o uso das Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação (TIC) para facilitar a participação do cidadão no processo de tomada de decisão política −, não têm conseguido alcançar o sucesso esperado no que concerne ao nível de envolvimento do cidadão atingido. Esta falta de envolvimento é particularmente evidente nas iniciativas lideradas e disponibilizadas pelos governos (iniciativas governamentais de e-Participação). Embora o rápido crescimento das redes sociais, especialmente do Facebook, seja apontado como um meio promissor para fomentar e melhorar o nível de participação do cidadão, o problema do baixo nível de aceitação e de envolvimento do cidadão em iniciativas de e-participação persiste. Importa, pois, compreender, conceptualizar e teorizar sobre os fatores que afetam o nível de aceitação evidenciado pelo cidadão em relação a esse tipo de iniciativas. Assim, é finalidade deste estudo investigar os fatores relevantes que influenciam a intenção dos cidadãos de aceitarem e de se envolverem nas iniciativas governamentais de e-Participação disponibilizadas através do Facebook, baseando-se na Teoria do Comportamento Planeado (Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB)), devidamente estendida pela incorporação de um conjunto de fatores relevantes que emergiram da literatura relevante. Os resultados quantitativos de um questionário respondido por 400 cidadãos Jordanos, mostram que a atitude do cidadão (citizen attitude (ATT)), a eficácia de participação (participation efficacy (PE)), e o controlo comportamental percecionado (perceived behavioral control (PBC)) afetam direta e positivamente a intenção de participação do cidadão. Por sua vez, a atitude do cidadão é determinada pela eficácia de participação (participation efficacy (PE)), utilidade percecionada e compatibilidade do Facebook (perceived usefullness (PU) e compatibility (COMP)), e valor percecionado do envolvimento do cidadão nas iniciativas governamentais de e- Participação (perceived value (PV)). Contrariamente, nem as normas sociais (social norms (SN)) nem a confiança do cidadão no Facebook (citizen’s trust in Facebook (CT_FB)) têm impacto significativo na intenção e atitude do cidadão. Adicionalmente, o valor percecionado (perceived value (PV)) é influenciado pela perceção de facilidade de utilização do Facebook (perceived ease of use (PEOU)) e pela confiança dos cidadãos no governo (citizen’s trust in government (CT_GOV)). O estudo mostra ainda que os cidadãos Jordanos apresentam uma atitude positiva em relação ao envolvimento em iniciativas governamentais de e participação disponibilizadas através do Facebook mas apresentam uma intenção moderada de participar em tais iniciativas. Por ser um dos poucos trabalhos conhecidos focado no estudo da intenção dos cidadãos de aceitarem e de se envolverem em iniciativas governamentais de e-Participação disponibilizadas através das redes sociais, o estudo aqui descrito aporta contribuições relevantes para o desenvolvimento do conhecimento teórico e prático no domínio da participação eletrónica.Electronic Participation (e-Participation) initiatives, seen as the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) for facilitating citizen participation in the process of policy decision-making, have often had a limited success of citizens' engagement, particularly those initiatives sponsored by governments (government-led e-Participation initiatives). While the rapid growth of using social media networks, specifically Facebook, represented a new promising venue for enhancing citizens’ participation, the problem of low-level citizens’ acceptance and engagement remains. Hence, conceptual clarity on what factors affect citizens’ acceptance of such initiatives are yet to be theorized. This study aims at investigating relevant factors that influence citizens’ intention to accept and to engage in government-led e-Participation initiatives through Facebook, based on extended Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) through the incorporation of a set of factors that emerged from relevant literature. Using data from a survey of 400 Jordanian citizens, the quantitative results proved that citizen attitude (ATT), participation efficacy (PE), and perceived behavioral control (PBC) directly and positively affect citizen’s intention to participate. Citizen attitude, in turn, is determined by participation efficacy (PE), perceived usefulness and compatibility of Facebook (PU and COMP), and perceived value of citizen’s involvement in government-led e-Participation initiatives (PV). However, neither social norms (SN) nor citizen’s trust in Facebook (CT_FB) have significant impact over citizen intention or attitude. Further, perceived value (PV) is influenced by perceived ease of use of Facebook (PEOU), and citizen’s trust in government (CT_GOV). Additionally, the study found that Jordanian citizens uphold relatively high positive attitude toward engaging in government-led e-Participation initiatives through Facebook but they have a moderate intention to participate in those initiatives. As the present work is one of very few studies addressing citizens’ intention to accept and to engage in e-Participation initiatives through social media in government context, the study provides important implications for theory and practice

Electronic participation through social media

It is widely acknowledge that many of e-Participation initiatives often attract wider audience and face serious limited citizens’ involvement. The use of social media has been seen as a hope to remedy such limitation. However, despite the recently adoption of social media the lack of citizens’ involvement in e-Participation initiatives still remains. This ongoing research paper aims at producing a general overview of e-Participation through social media. So far, the latest research works on such topic have been predominantly focused on a political context of e-Participation, where politicians-citizens interactions and activities are the central interest of the studies. Little existing studies investigate e-Participation in its own right in government context. The findings also reveal that the majority of e-Participation through social media initiatives are more informative than interactive, since few initiatives have been found that aim to considerably enhance citizen participation in policy decision making.This work has been supported by Portuguese FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology within the Project Scope UID /CEC / 00319/2013info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Predicting citizens acceptance of government-led e-participation initiatives through social Media: a theoretical model

Whilst the idea of utilizing social media to advance government-led e-Participation initiatives has proliferated significantly in recent years, mostly such initiatives do not meet the intended expectations, as the majority of them fail to attract wider citizens’ audience. Overall, the key factors that could explain and predict citizens’ participation are not yet thoroughly identified. Therefore, the current study develops a theoretical citizen-centric model that seeks to explain and predict the intention of citizens’ behavior towards their involvement in government-led e-Participation initiatives through social media. The methodological approach is primarily based on utilizing and extending one of the well-known theories for describing a person acceptance behavior, namely the Theory of Planned Behavior. The model applies the main constructs of the Theory – attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control; and complements them with several constructs drawn from relevant literature. The paper contributes to understanding the reasons why citizens decide to engage or not in government-led e-Participation initiatives through social media.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Electronic participation with a special reference to social media - a literature review

As a consequence of the interdisciplinary nature of Electronic Partici-pation (e-Participation), current research on the field is fragmented and scattered. The exciting blurry boundaries and the immature identity of the field are making difficult the understanding of the main domain themes being investigated, in par-ticular for “neophytes” researchers. In practice, several e-Participation initiatives often attract a wide audience but face serious limitations regarding involvement of those who attract. Recently, the potential of using social media to address cit-izens’ involvement deficit has been subject of academic debate. By consulting 44 e-Participation papers, considered highly relevant to the aforementioned chal-lenges, this paper produces a general overview of e-Participation research, par-ticularly through social media. The findings show that the e-Participation field still faces the challenge of identity and strive for gaining wider recognition as an independent research area. Concerning e-Participation through social media which seems to be partly overlooked in the field research, the politicians-citizen’s interaction has dominated scholars' attention and the adoption of such initiatives sponsored and driven by governments are rarely examine. Based on the findings, several research suggestions, which could play a significant contribution to advance future e-Participation research, are proposed

Hit the bull's-eye: electronic participation through social media

This paper presents research findings of reviewing 42 studies concerning electronic participation (e-Participation) through social media. Overall, such initiatives have reflected the prevalence of a one-way communication strategy, what do not considerably foster citizen involvement in policy decision making process.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The delphi method in information systems research (2004-2017)

After almost 30 years of being used in the information system (IS) discipline, only a few studies have focused on how IS scholars apply the method's guidelines to design Delphi studies. Thus, this paper focuses on the use of the Delphi method in IS research. To do so, articles published between 2004 and 2017 in the Senior IS Scholars' collection of journals of the Association of Information Systems (AIS), describing Delphi studies, were analised. Based on analysis of sixteen (16) retrieved IS studies, we concluded that IS researchers have applied the method's most important phases and the procedural recommendations to promote rigor were considered in the majority of the analised studies. Nonetheless, IS researchers still need to include detailed information about (1) the steps taken to ensure the validity of the achieved results, (2) better describe the process of selecting and recruiting the experts, and (3) experiment with innovative techniques to keep participants involved in the Delphi process.- (undefined

Determinants of citizens' intention to engage in government-led electronic participation initiatives through Facebook

The research work on understanding whether citizens will readily accept to engage with governments in e-participation initiatives through social media remains limited. Therefore, this study investigates the factors that are influencing citizens´ intention to engage in government-led e-Participation initiatives through Facebook. To that end, the study proposes and validates a citizen-centric acceptance model. The proposed model extends the model primarily established on the theory of planned behavior, by incorporating additional factors that emerged from relevant literature. The research data were collected from a survey of 400 Facebook users in Jordan using a probability sample technique. The results revealed that the factors with the most significant influence on citizens´ intention to engage in government-led e-participation initiatives through Facebook are: the citizens´ attitude, participation efficacy, and perceived behavior control. Subjective norms and perceived value, however, have no direct effect on citizens´ intention to engage in government-led e-participation initiatives through Facebook. Furthermore, the results showed that the citizens´ attitude is primarily determined by participation efficacy, perceived usefulness and compatibility of Facebook, and perceived value. In contrast, the factors perceived ease of use of Facebook, citizens´ trust in government, and citizens´ trust in Facebook, have no significant impact on citizens´ attitude. These factors have rarely been empirically tested in the context of e-participation. Consequently, this study paves the way towards a better understanding of the important factors that influence citizens´ intention to participate, which, in turn, will inform the design and implementation of e-participation initiatives.Fil: Alarabiat, Ayman. Al-Balqa Applied University; JordaniaFil: Soares, Delfina. United Nations University; PortugalFil: Estevez, Elsa Clara. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Sur; Argentin

Embracing Smart Government During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence from the United Arab Emirates

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, governments worldwide are pursuing digital government strategies and exploring innovative technologies to provide up-to-date information. Many countries, such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE), are embracing digital transformation and accelerating the use of smart government technologies to increase the resilience of healthcare systems and improve public services. The extant literature requires rigorous development of the concept of smart government. Indeed, prior literature indicates an urgent need for research on smart government policy and use. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the smart government capabilities of the UAE’s Ministry of Health and Prevention by developing criteria for evaluating smart government. The findings reveal that the Ministry is forward thinking in promoting state-of-the-art technologies such as new mobile apps and services that have helped in the fight against COVID-19