World Applied Programming, Vol (3), Issue (5), May 2013.

190-199
ISSN: 2222-2510
2013 WAP journal. www.tijournals.com

A Study of the Effects of Technology Acceptance Factors

on Users Satisfaction of E-Government Services
Belghis Bavarsad

Mohammad Ali Mennatyan

Assistant professor of Management,

Shahid Chamran University (SCU) of
Ahvaz, Iran.
bita40@yahoo.com

Master of Management,
Shahid Chamran University (SCU),
Ahvaz, Iran.
m.mennatyan@yahoo.com

Abstract: This paper tries to study the effects that the technology acceptance factors have on e-government
services users satisfaction. The study data were gathered from a sample of 396 users of e-government services
in Booshehr Province, Iran. The data collection tool was a structured questionnaire, its reliability was confirmed
by Cronbach's alpha coefficient (=0.91). Data were analyzed by Structural equation modeling (SEM) using
AMOS software. The analysis results indicated a good fit for the proposed model and the research findings also
supported the positive and significant effect of the ease of use, trust, content and appearance of information and
perceived usefulness on e-service users satisfaction. However, no significant relationship was found between
citizens support with the users satisfaction of e-service quality.
Keywords: Technology Acceptance Factors, Structural Equations Model, Services, Users Satisfaction, eGovernment
INTRODUCTION
Today, the developed countries have adopted a new economic indicator, known as customer satisfaction, for various
industries beside other indicators, because of its importance in economic prosperity of a nation (Sharbat Oughli &
Ekhlasi, 2008: 57). Customer satisfaction is an important factor in customer maintenance and this becomes more obvious
when we learn that maintaining the existing customers costs less than attracting new ones, and it brings abundant profit
for a firm/organization. Given the importance of satisfaction in maintaining the customers, most organizations aim at
achieving customer satisfaction. In order to satisfy the customers, their demands and requirements must be taken into
account. The fact those customers demands, requirements and expectations change over time leads to the necessity of
customer satisfaction monitoring in a continuous way (Ranjbaran et al, 2002: 129).
Also, provision of suitable services is another factor affecting customers satisfaction and consequently, customer
maintenance; and customers satisfaction of the provided services leads to recommending the products/services to others
by the customers. An organization which has planned the provision of suitable services based on customer demands and
expectations as one of its practical objectives can be a successful organization relying on other business principles. In the
recent years, citizens expectations and dissatisfaction of services provided by public organizations have elevated and
there is little probability that they accept a quality lower than desirable. In this situation, political inertia and bureaucracy
may lead to the loss of official and political agents credit. Therefore, public organizations should accept such social
changes (citizens becoming more critic and claimant) as a reliable source (Korunak et al, 2007). On the other hand, the
clients awareness of the quality of other organizations services has elevated and as the number of competitors
increases, clients would not accept every service any more (Saeeda Ardekani et al., 2009).
An option for the governments to enhance the quality of services and transforming it is to employ ICT and egovernment. The main channel and medium for providing e-services is the organizations websites through which all
services would be provided. Public agencies form a center for provision of services used by the whole nation. The
government usually provides quality services but citizens are not satisfied of them. Also, there is strong evidence that
private sector provides higher quality services than public sector (Sinha, 1999). But in the recent years the governments
consideration of providing quality service to the citizens has become more obvious, the governments now are facing the
question how to provide faster, better, cheaper and higher- quality services (Alvani & Reihani, 2003).

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LITERATURE REVIEW
E-Satisfaction
Customers' satisfaction refers to their opinion and judgment on a specific purchase. Satisfaction refers to the customers'
judgment of the value they have received. Customer satisfaction has many benefits for economic entities such that
different studies show that increased satisfaction leads to reduced customer sensitivity towards price, reduced marketing
costs, and increased effectiveness of advertisements and reputation (Mansouri & Kazemzadeh Brothers, 2007: 3).
Blanchard and Galloway believe that customer satisfaction results from a customers perception during a value-based
deal or relation so that the price equals the ratio of performed services to the customer costs and price (Hallowell, 1996,
p. 28). It should be noted that quality of goods/services plays the most essential role in client satisfaction/dissatisfaction.
Therefore, pioneering and excellent organizations always try to ensure of their clients satisfaction (Wick and Leon,
1995:301 ) because the clients higher satisfaction levels is some kind of insurance against organizations potential
mistakes which are inevitable as a result of changes related to services production. Constant clients show higher
indulgence when faced with such circumstances because, as a result of previous satisfactory experience are prone to
easily ignore the organizations small faults. Thus, it is not surprising that clients satisfaction achievement has become
the organizations most important task (A'ali, 2002).
E-satisfaction refers to the customers satisfaction of the support for receiving and sending orders for goods/services;
after-sale services; price of goods and services; website content quality; website loading time; website reliability;
websites ease of use; and security. That is, e-satisfaction refers to a customers satisfaction with attention to their
previous shopping experience at an e-commerce corporation. Also, e-satisfaction has been defined as the preference for
goods/services of a given e-corporation over the competition when shopping. Bauer and Grether (2002) in their study of
the characters existing in the Internet introduced the factors determining e-satisfaction as: information accessibility level,
communication structure, individualization, integrated information and transactions (Negahdari, 2009). There is a key
difference between e-satisfaction and physical commerce environment satisfaction which is, the features of Internet as a
medium and its implications directly influence the perceived e-satisfaction. For instance, ease of information
downloading, ease of payment, website structure and alike, all influence e-satisfaction (Azizi & Negahdari, 2012).
FACTORS AFFECTING USERS SATISFACTION OF E-GOVERNMENTS SERVICES
Although the issue of satisfaction has been greatly discussed in the literatures of Information Systems, e-Commerce and
Marketing (DeLo,ne & McLean, 1992; Liu et al., 2008), enough attention has not been paid to the identification of the
factors affecting customer (citizen)s satisfaction of e-government services. Recently, some researchers (Liao & Chang,
2008) have begun evaluating the factors influencing customer satisfaction of e-government services.
There is much empirical evidence that technology acceptance factors are able to explain the users tendency towards
technology acceptance. Studies performed by Geffen and Straub (1997) on e-mail acceptance, Gapar et al. (2011) on ecommerce acceptance, Chen and colleagues (2002) on virtual stores, Cofaris & Labarbara (2002) on e-customer
behavior, Ching et al (2011) on e-banking acceptance, all have confirmed the role of technology acceptance factors in
accepting these technologies. The effect of technology acceptance factors on customer satisfaction has also been proved
by the same research line (Huang et al., 2011). Users experience of technology application might be the major criteria
for evaluation of customers satisfaction of the services provided by a website (Kumar et al., 2012).
Technology acceptance factors are considered as valuable tools in predicting satisfaction (Alghahtani & King, 1999),
customer services improvement (Mathison, 1991), and service quality improvement. Previous works was built on
technology acceptance model and its extension in order to assess its application on the Internet. Riyadh and colleagues
(2009) demonstrated that technology model had many applications in assessing customer satisfaction of e-banking in
Malaysia. Yang and Fang (2004) also stated that technology acceptance factors greatly affected the customers
satisfaction of online service-providing (Alsudary, 2005).
PERCEIVED EASE OF USE
Ease of use refers to the extent to which it is easy for citizens to interact with a website (Chau & Hu, 2001). An
individuals perception of ease of use refers to the degree to which they believe that little mental effort is needed in order
to learn how to use and work with a specific system. Numerous researches on information systems revealed that ease of
use affects the intention to use (Taylor & Todd, 1995). A websites ease of use depends on various aspects such as ease

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of system management for the user, easy to keep basic operations in mind, website design efficiency level, error
reduction percentage, and users overall satisfaction in the management area (Wirtz & Chew, 2002).
In Information Systems literature, ease of use is recognized as a factor affecting customer satisfaction (Torkzadeh &
Doll, 1988; McHaney & Cronan, 1988), service quality assessment (DeLone & McLean, 1992), and technology
acceptance (Davis, 1989). Ease of use appears frequently in studies examining the key dimensions of web quality or the
factors influencing customer satisfaction. Among others, Liao and Chang (2008) suggested that ease of use is an
effective factor in customer satisfaction of e-banking. Thus, it might be said that ease of use is an effective factor in
customer satisfaction of e-government services.
CONTENT AND APPEARANCE OF INFORMATION
This dimension refers to the quality of information and its display such as proper use of colors, graphics and web page
size (Hoffman & Krauss, 2004). The features of applied systems and the information contained therein are among the
factors affecting IT acceptance. Effective communication, website design and its content are known as key factors
determining the perceived quality of e-services. (Lin & Lee, 2005). Some websites are not fully used because of
improper customization and user support.
In the same way that aspects such as completeness, accuracy, brevity and relevance are considered as positive features of
information, excess or scarcity are negative ones. Timeliness of information is also a critical factor because previous
works has shown that e-government website are not updated regularly (Santos, 2003). Correct links are complementary
to the information provided by the website and therefore proper links should be selected and maintained. Also these links
should be routinely monitored for solving any potential problem. Easy perception of documents or information provided
in the website is essential particularly in the case of formal documents which contain specialized terminology and are
formulated in an official jargon. Another required characteristic is the aesthetic one recognized with features such as
colors used, graphics, animation, and size of web pages. Visual impact of a web page can have a considerable influence
on user experience and has important implications for effective communications (Papadomichelaki & Mentzas, 2012).
Ranganathan & Ganapathy (2002) state that website design has an important role in attracting and maintaining
customers interest in the website. Also, many investigations provide empirical evidence that website design influences
user satisfaction (Liu et al, 2008; Zviran et al, 2006). On the other hand, key features of a website may be classified into
its content or design. Content refers to the information provided by a website. Content has an essential role in influencing
customers behavior. Therefore, many studies focused on content (or information content) as a factor affecting the
website quality (Ranganathan & Ganapathy, 2002).
CITIZEN SUPPORT
Supporting the citizens refers to the assistance provided by organizations to citizens towards browsing required
information or during interaction with the website. This assistance may include user guide, existence of help pages in the
website and presenting the frequently asked questions with their answers within the website (Zeithaml et al., 2002).
Provision of supportive mechanisms and systems support capabilities is another important factor of technology
acceptance. Such mechanisms can help users in the case of their unawareness of employed technology or unforeseen
events (Gupta & Gupta, 2008). According to Joseph and Stone (2003), user support services refer to the ability to
respond to the potential problems in purchased goods/services, or the purchase process itself; and the ability to solve
customer concerns and difficulties.
Thus, the user support services could be recognized as the service quality responsiveness dimension which influences
satisfaction. Numerous studies confirm the association between this dimension and quality service or customer
satisfaction of effective e-government services (Jun & Cai, 2001; Liao and Chung, 2002). Those studies showed that
responsiveness (customer support) lead to higher customer satisfaction.
ISPs need to pay more attention to supporting their customers in order to achieve their satisfaction. Customer satisfaction
is determined by their evaluation of the service provided by the firms website (Gustafsson et al., 2005). Anne and
colleagues (2006) demonstrated that when customers could not convey their complaint appropriately to the firm, they
would shift to other firms. This could be due to the fact that customer service centers do not consider the customer
complaints or the customers can not reflect them appropriately.

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RELIABILITY
Reliability refers to the degree to which citizens rely upon governments websites in terms of appropriate and timely
provision of services. This includes proper technical functioning (accessibility and usability), and fulfillment of
promises. Accessibility is a general term which mostly refers to the extent to which a system is usable for most users
without need for modification. Usability refers to the extent to which a system is affected by problems or interference in
providing service to citizens as a result of failures in one or more of its sections. Usability of a website can be improved
by ensuring 24 h access, loading speed and transaction speed (Papadomichelaki & Mentzas, 2012). Reliability of
services refers to the capability of providing promised services in a correct, timely and reliable manner. Reliability
means the ability to provide the promised services in a correct, reliable and continuous fashion. For instance, users
visiting a government website expect to be provided with appropriate, timely and high-quality services. Reliability is
measure of a websites ability to meet such expectations. Another significance of reliability is the fulfillment of primary
commitments. That is, if a service organization makes promises towards customers, it should fulfill them.
In e- businesses, completion of a new order requires appropriate infrastructures in both logistics and IT; and has always
been a concern for e-marketers (Heim & Field, 2007). Most online businesses use third party logistic firms to meet this
requirement and therefore they may not control the goods delivery speed in those firms. Customers are not usually
satisfied with the reliability of online-provided services. If there is an unreliable information system, numerous problems
arise in service providing which may influence customer satisfaction (Behjati et al., 2012).
TRUST
Users trust is defined as intention to trust a business partner who is reliable. Trust involves security and privacy
protection and refers to citizens trust in a website in terms of lack of risks during the interaction process with that
website (Das & Teng, 2001).
Trust is a strategy which enables the individuals to adapt with a complex social environment thereby benefit from
increasing opportunities. Trust is specifically associated with unawareness or uncertainty conditions and involves other
individuals actions' being unidentifiable. Trust consists of appropriate expectations of other individuals actions that
have commitment to select their actions, when they are able to monitor others actions before selecting the action. Trust
is introduced when reliable expectations bring disorders in decisions (Zetomka, 2007). Trust is a product of
psychological intentions which are beyond immediate control of any public organization. Such permanent intentions are
linked to long term social intention to believe in social organizations and that if individuals trust others; better results
will occur (Carter & Belanger, 2008).
Since e-government is based on Internet which is an open network, security is an important factor in functions of egovernment. Despite various technical advancements such as message encoding, and digital signatures and certificates,
customers are still concerned about the security of their transactions while using Internet (Ranganathan & Ganapathy,
2002). Removing security concerns will lead to higher user satisfaction levels. Reliability is an important element in
building relations. Customers trust in a firm in the Internet is determined by the connection through telephone or e-mail,
and in general, customers experience with that firm.
Two important issues the customers are concerned about when doing e-transactions include their security and privacy,
especially in terms of their personal information. Que and colleagues (2009) found that customers are concerned with the
security of their personal information when doing e-shopping. Information provided in a website during e-shopping may
be abused by hackers (Behjati et al., 2012). Security and privacy protection greatly affects customers e-satisfaction
(Szymanski & Hise, 2000). Most researchers agree that security-related issues have a strong influence on e-transactions
and customer satisfaction.
PERCEIVED USEFULNESS
An individuals perceptions on usefulness of an informative technology depend on the extent to which they believe that
using a specific technology leads to the improvement of their professional performance within an organization or helps
better performance of tasks. Such a help may be realized through reducing task performance time or timely provision of
information (Doll et al., 1998).

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In e-government terms, this performance refers to the usefulness of users interaction with the website of the intended
public organization and benefits they achieve through this interaction. Horton and colleagues (2001) believe that
perceived usefulness positively affects the intention to use Internet. In 2008, Carter examined the effects of three factors:
perceived usefulness, ease of use, trust in Internet, trust in government, computer self-efficiency and previous interaction
experience with e-government among 105 American citizens and found that the perceived usefulness construct was the
most powerful predictor of intention to use e-government.
Usefulness and design are important in human-computer interaction because they influence users satisfaction and task
performance when using computers (Palmer, 2002). The good design of a website leads to increased profitability and
may influence the websites success. Most online customers use the Internet to search for goods which are not found in
real-world stores (Barsia, 2000). Therefore, websites should provide different kinds of goods and services and make
needed information available to customers in order to attract them.
The main reason why customers use the Internet is the usefulness factor. They can easily do whatever they like within a
website. Firms providing more varied products and services have the chance to have more customers. For those who are
dissatisfied with the products in real stores, provision of new products in a website may prove satisfactory (Behjati et al.,
2012).
RESEARCH BACKGROUND
Researchers have tried to assess the customers satisfaction of e-government services among which Horan and
Abhichandani (2006), An assessment of user satisfaction in e-government: results of structural equations and focus
group discussions can be pointed out. In their research in Los Angeles and Minneapolis, they used variables such as
usefulness, reliability, efficiency, personalization, flexibility, and adaptation, to identify the factors affecting citizens'
satisfaction. They found that usefulness, efficiency and adaptation were the factors affecting sentimental satisfaction.
Hsu (2008) developed an index of e-customers satisfaction. Modifying the American customer satisfaction model, he
found trust, perceived value and e-service quality as factors affecting users' satisfaction.
In the same line, Welch, Hinant and Moon (2004) in their research on the relationship between customer satisfaction, egovernment and trust in government, found that using the governments website was positively related to satisfaction
from e-government and from the website; and that satisfaction from e-government was positively related to trust in the
government. Devaraj et al. (2002) identified the implications of satisfaction from B2C and presented usability, ease of
use, time, cost efficiency and reliability as factors affecting satisfaction.
Lai and Piers (2010) found four success factors affecting users satisfaction of e-government services while testing a
model for assessment of acceptance of and satisfaction from e-government portal. They include: information quality,
perceived usefulness, system quality and social impacts.
Examining 18 government-owned websites in South Korea, Byun and Finnie (2011) identified usefulness and perceived
usability, websites proper design and ease of e-service use as the most important measures of customer satisfaction of egovernment services.
Also, in a quantitative study, Verdegem and Verleve (2009) explored the factors affecting citizens satisfaction of egovernment. Using Johnston and Murray (1995)s model, they examined 15 factors influencing users' satisfaction which
included: reduced executive load, reliability, cost effectiveness, usability, ease of use, security, content readability,
privacy protection, respect and courtesy, content quality, transparency, responsiveness, accessibility, flexibility and
personal contact. Their research results showed that all aforesaid 15 factors were important in citizens satisfaction and
they should be all applied when assessing satisfaction.
CONCEPTUAL MODEL AND RESEARCH HYPOTHESES
The conceptual model for this research was built on Davis technology acceptance model (1985) and Papadomichelaki
& Mentzas e-service quality model (2012).

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Perceived Ease of Use

Reliability

Citizen Support
Users Satisfaction
Trust
Content and Appearance
of Information

Perceived Usefulness

Figure 1. proposed model

Accordingly, the following hypotheses were tested:

H1. Ease of use significantly affects e-government service quality.
H2. Content and appearance of information significantly affect e-customer satisfaction.
H3. Reliability significantly affects e-customer satisfaction.
H4. Trust significantly affects e-customer satisfaction.
H5.Perceived usefulness significantly affects e-government service quality
METHODOLOGY OF RESEARCH
The research method for the present paper was an applied method based on the purpose, and a descriptive method based
on data collection method and is a correlation, correlation matrix analysis or covariance type because in the present paper
the relationship between variables is derived and examined based on factor analysis (Sarmad et al. 2012).
The statistical population for this paper includes all customers (clients) of public organizations who use e-government
services in Booshehr Province, southern Iran. As collecting information from totality of population was infeasible in
practice (and even if feasible, impractical in terms of time, costs and other required facilities) a sample was selected the
size of which was determined using the Cochrane equation

where p is the success ratio and is estimated

based on researchers guess or previous research. If there is not the possibility of such estimation, the success ratio is
considered as 0.5 where the sample size increases to its highest possible value (Momeni, 2010).
p= the ratio of society members who have the feature in question
q= the ratio of society members who do not have the feature in question (1-p)
= 5% confidence coefficient
= confidence distance (1.96)
Based on peoples participation rates, 500 questionnaires were distributed among which 396 questionnaires were usable
and were used in analyses.
Questionnaires were field-distributed. They had been developed based on literature review in marketing, e-service and
technology usage areas. In the research questionnaire, the perceived ease of use was assessed by 4 items and the
perceived usefulness, too, with 4 items based on those suggested by Davis et al. (1989). Content and appearance of
information, reliability, citizen support and trust constructs were assessed based on scales provided by Parasuraman et
al. (2005), Papadomichelaki & Mentzas (2012), Zeithaml et al. (2002) and Collier & Bienstuck (2006).
The satisfaction from e-government services construct was assessed using 4 items with the scales proposed by Jhong &
Prybutok (2005). All questions were assessed using 5-point Likert scale (from completely agree to completely disagree).
In order to ensure validity and reliability of data collection tools, the content validity (formal and logical) was confirmed

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by professionals and their opinion was used to modify the questionnaire. Reliability was determined by Cronbach's alpha
(Sarmad et al. 2008) and the following coefficients were obtained: 0.81 for users satisfaction of e-governments service
quality; 0.78 for ease of use; 0.79 for reliability; 0.74 for perceived usefulness; 0.77 for citizen support; 0.78 for content
and appearance of information; 0.70 for trust; and 0.92 for total variables.
DATA A NALYSIS
Of the total 500 questionnaires distributed, 417 completed surveys were received (83% response rate). 396
questionnaires were fully completed which we used in this investigation. The results of descriptive analysis showed that
the majority of respondents (59.6%) were female. Also, the majority of respondents (79.2%) were graduates and the age
range of most of them (81.2%) was between 18 and 23 years.
STRUCTURAL EQUATIONS MODEL
In assessing the model using structural equations modeling, the two-stage approach presented by Anderson and Gerbing
(1988) is followed. In this approach, Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) is used in the first stage to assess the
measurement model. In CFA the reliability and validity of measurement model are examined under Structural Equations
Model (SEM) principles. In the second stage, the models validity and fitness was assessed with attention to data
structures using SEM. In the present paper, using a two-stage approach, first the appropriateness of measurement model
is verified using structural equations analysis and in the second stage the proposed model is assessed by using structural
equations analysis and the proposed hypotheses are tested.
MEASUREMENT MODELS ESTIMATION
Measurement model is a model based on pre-empirical information on data structure which could be in the form of a
theory or hypothesis, a specific classification scheme for items or sub-tests in compliance with form and content concrete
features, known empirical conditions or knowledge obtained from previous studies on extended data. Among various
methods for examination of internal structure of a set of indicators, CFA is the most useful method which estimates the
parameters and tests the hypotheses with attention to the number of underlying factors of relations between indicators
(Hooman 2009).
In the present paper, a seven-factor model was tested for technology acceptance and customer satisfaction factors. Chisquare overall fit indexes (2 =726.08, df=326, p=.00, 2/df=2.22) show that the measurement model has a good and
acceptable fit. In addition to chi-square, several other indexes also are used to determine the good fit of research models
among which Goodness of Fit Index (GFI), Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), Tucker-Lewis-Index (TLI) and Root
Mean Square Error (RMSE) can be pointed out. The closer the GFI to one, the better fit will have the data pattern. Also,
TLI, Incremental Fit Index (IFI) and CFI are acceptable in ranges higher than 0.90 and indicate good fit of a model
(Medsker et al., 1994). As illustrated in Table 3, all are within acceptable range and these results indicate desirable fit of
proposed measurement model.
Also, statistically it is suggested that factors with a regression load (factor load) more than 0.5 are considered as
significant and acceptable (Klemperer, 1995). CFA results together with partial index p were examined to test the
acceptability of factor load of each item and the factor loads of all items were higher than 0.50 and partial p, lower than
0.05 so it may be concluded that the items assess observation variables appropriately. Thus, it may be generally stated
that all considered factors are confirmed and overall fit indicates the good fit of the study measurement model with
observed data.
Table 1. Confirmatory factor analysis of measurement model
Index
Measurement
Model

RMSE

GFI

CFA

TLI

IFI

CIMIN/DF

CIMIN

DF

0/056

0/882

0/904

0/889

0/906

2/22

0/00

726.08

326

Reference: research results

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EXAMINING THE PROPOSED MODELS FIT

After ensuring the correctness of measurement model (using CFA) we proceed to examine the structural model. Results
showed that the proposed model had a desirable fit and the fit indexes also confirmed models fit. The chi-square value
(2=737.480, df=327, P=0/00) showed that the formulated models fit was satisfactory and acceptable. Other fit indexes
are shown in Table 2.
Table 2. Model fit indexes
Index
Partial Chi Square (CMIN/DF)

Value
2.25

Acceptable Range*
Between 1 to 5

Result
Acceptable

Normalized Fit Index (NFI)

.838

Close to 1

Acceptable

Incremental Fit Index (IFI)

.903

Tucker-Lewis Index. (TLI)

.887

Comparative Fit Index (CFI)

.902

Parsimony Comparative Fit Index (PCFI)

.780

Parsimony Normalized Fit Index (PNFI)

.725

Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA)

.056

Acceptable

0/9>

Acceptable

0/9>

Acceptable

0/9>

Acceptable

0/6>

Acceptable

0/6>

Acceptable

0/08<

Reference: (*Medsker et al., 1994 and Browne & Cudeck, 1992)

Given the obtained results and comparing them with the acceptable range, it may be generally stated that all fit indexes
are within the acceptable range and confirms the suitable fit of the proposed model.
HYPOTHESES TEST
Structural Equations Model (SEM) was used to test study hypotheses. The results of performed analyses using AMOS
ver.16 software and related estimations are given in Table 3. As said before, this model had a good fit for our data.
Table 3. Hypothesis Test Results
Hypothesis

Relationship

Direction

Estimation

Standard
Deviation

Critical
Ratio

Result

Perceived Ease of Use on Users Satisfaction

Direct

.249

.066

3.762

***

Confirmed

Reliability on Users Satisfaction

Direct

.207

.081

2.562

.010

Confirmed

Citizen Support on Users Satisfaction

Direct

.060

.074

.809

.418

Rejected

Trust on Users Satisfaction

Direct

.291

.138

2.107

.035

Confirmed

Content and Appearance of Information on Users Satisfaction

Direct

.224

.118

1.901

.057

Rejected

Perceived Usefulness on Users Satisfaction

Direct

.342

.116

2.936

.003

Confirmed

Reference: Research Results

Results showed that ease of use, trust, content and appearance of information, and perceived usefulness positively and
significantly affected customer satisfaction. That is, H1, H2, H4, and H6 were supported but no positive and significant
relationships were found between reliability and citizen support with customer satisfaction.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
The present paper investigated the effects of reliability, citizen support, ease of use, trust, perceived usefulness, and
content and appearance of information as the dimensions of technology acceptance on customer satisfaction. For this
purpose, employing the SEM two-stage approach, first the fit of the five-factor model proposed for measurement of these
variables was examined and confirmed. After validating the measurement model, in the second stage, the structural
model was used to verify the fit of the proposed study model as well as testing the proposed hypotheses which the
suitable fit of the proposed model was confirmed given the results of structural equations model.

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Results showed that ease of use, trust, content and appearance of information, and perceived usefulness had a positive
and significant effect on customer satisfaction which is consistent with Zhang & Trafder (2005), Horan and
Abhichandani (2006), Bayan & Fini (2011) and Verdegem & Verleye (2009) and McQuay et al (1996).
Therefore it is suggested that managers of public organizations try to simplify and minimize the required steps and
process of performing services, provide simple training for using e-services (either physical or online) to the customers.
Since the effect of content and appearance of information on users' satisfaction was confirmed, public organizations
should try to upgrade the designs of their websites in an appropriate and user-friendly manner to increase users'
satisfaction and create a good perception for them. Also, findings showed that customer trust had a positive and
significant effect on users satisfaction of e-services.
According to the findings, the higher the ability of a website to provide services, the more the customers use those
services. Also, public organizations and the government should try to encourage the people to use these services and
attract their trust through upgrading e-service providing systems, effort to train and enhance citizens awareness of such
services, marketing and advertisement so that users feel secure and at ease having access to useful services with easy
access and in attractive, user-friendly websites, which is followed by their increased satisfaction.
Results did not indicate any positive and significant relationships between reliability and citizen support with customer
trust. Citizen support refers to provided assistance including user guide, assistance pages in a website, and FAQs and
their answers. Rejection of the effect of this variable on e-service users' satisfaction, inconsistent with John & Que
(2001) and Liao & Chung (2002) was perhaps due to the fact that citizens considered such services as primary ones, and
the least available and acceptable ones, or due to lack of such items within the governments e-services, which requires
further investigation. Reliability, too, did not have a significant effect on e-governments services users' satisfaction. As
we know already, the reliability of the citizens confidence levels in public websites are related to correct and timely
provision of information and in other words, certainty of 24h accessibility, loading speed and suitable transaction speed.
Rejection of this hypothesis could be due to low Internet speed and unpopular use of e-government services in Iran.
Therefore, Iranian government and public organizations- though performed suitable actions to inform citizens about eservice usage- should advance this program in the form of a coherent marketing and advertising plan and also should try
to improve the required infrastructure such as increasing the Internet speed etc.
In the present study, faced with limitations such as study area which only consisted of Booshehr province, sample and
time, we were only able to examine a few influential variables. Therefore, it is suggested that future studies consider the
factors affecting customer satisfaction of e-government services and within a larger population, as well as the effects of
demographic and social variables of users satisfaction of e-government services.
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