Factors affecting e‐government adoption in Pakistan: a citizen's perspective

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the factors that enable end‐user adoption of e‐government services in Pakistan, where these facilities are at a rudimentary stage.Design/methodology/approachFollowing previous research on e‐government services adoption, this study employs the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model to examine the influential factors of the adoption and use of e‐government services in Pakistan from a citizen perspective. An online survey was conducted and a statistical descriptive analysis was performed on the responses received from 115 Pakistani citizens.FindingsIn line with previous research, the findings show that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, facilitating conditions and social influence are the factors that affect the user's adoption of e‐government services in Pakistan. Furthermore, the results show that lack of awareness, user data privacy, lack of appropriate support and assistance hamper the process.Practical implicationsThe findings are useful for policy‐makers and decision‐makers to develop a better understanding of citizens' needs. The adopted model can be used as a guideline for the implementation of e‐government services in Pakistan. This study suggests that government should run extensive advertising campaigns to ensure that people are aware of the services and use them. This implies that government should place emphasis on increasing awareness of the services, show the benefits of citizens, and encouraging confidence in the system.Originality/valueThis study is one of the few to examine what influences citizens adoption of e‐government services in South Asia. This paper is the first step exploring end‐user adoption of the e‐government services of Pakistan using UTAUT model. Corresponding to previous research, this study enforces the significance of particular factors that need to be considered when the goal is to increase e‐government services adoption in developing countries, particularly South Asian.