Investigating Service Characteristics as Determinants of User Performance and Satisfaction in Saudi Arabia's Mobile Government Context

This study examined the effects of key characteristics of m-government services on realizing two highly desired adoption outcomes, user performance improvement and satisfaction, in the Saudi Arabian context. Based on a literature gap in understanding these effects, a research model was developed incorporating five service characteristics (ubiquity, technical sustainability, responsiveness, intensiveness, and information soundness) as determinants of the two outcomes. To validate the developed model, a closed-ended survey questionnaire was administered through the convenience sampling method to Saudi citizens and residents having experience with m-government services. The collected data (i.e., 226 valid responses) were analyzed using the structural equation modeling approach. The findings revealed significant positive effects of responsiveness, intensiveness, and information soundness on performance improvement, while only responsiveness and intensiveness impacted satisfaction. Furthermore, indirect effects (i.e., through performance improvement) on satisfaction were explored for these characteristics. This study contributes by introducing new service characteristics overlooked in past m-government research and investigating under-examined outcomes in the considered context, thereby providing novel theoretical and practical insights.