Does better e-readiness induce more use of e-government? Evidence from the Korean central e-government

Abstract

The e-readiness indexes measured by accessibility and content have typically been employed in e-government website evaluations. We present empirical evidence from four e-readiness indexes (such as accessibility, e-information, e-petition and e-participation) and the clickstream website usage data of the Korean central government units from 2003 to 2005 to evaluate whether better e-readiness induces more use of e-government websites. We find that only the e-information index was significantly correlated with website usage, and the majority of usage variations were attributable to the unit-specific effects including the nature of each unit’s public service. Our findings also indicate that the accessibility index should not be considered a key factor to evaluate e-government websites any longer, and the traditional supply-side e-government content evaluations may provide misleading information on e-government evolution. Points for practitioners Traditional supply-side e-government evaluations may not reflect citizens’ actual needs and use of e-government services. The e-government deployment across different units should take account of each unit’s nature of public services.