E-Government in Croatia: Percieved Quality and Obstacles Among Younger Users

E-Government in Croatia: Percieved Quality and Obstacles Among Younger Users

Jovana Zoroja, Ivan Strugar, Božidar Jaković
Copyright: © 2020 |Pages: 12
DOI: 10.4018/IJESMA.2020070105
OnDemand:
(Individual Articles)
Available
$37.50
No Current Special Offers
TOTAL SAVINGS: $37.50

Abstract

The composite index summarizing relevant indicators of Europe's digital performance and tracking the progress of EU Member States in digital competitiveness in the Croatian case, still below the EU average, especially in the area of e-government. The aim of this article is twofold. First, we evaluate the difference between respondents 18 to 24 and 25 to 34 according to their attitudes towards the usage of offered e-government solutions. Second, we determine the presence of the obstacles in using e-government solutions among these two age groups. The utilization of e-government services is still rather low, and one, a very important reason for lower usage of e-government services in Croatia is the perceived low level of quality of the e-government services with the perceived high level of obstacles towards their usage.
Article Preview
Top

Introduction

Implementation and utilization of adequate digital and communication infrastructure have become a prerequisite for any organization and company. As the consequence of fast development of the information infrastructure, there appeared in professional and public discourse numerous terms with the prefix ‘e-’: e-business, e-company, e-tourism, e-banking, e-commerce, etc., signify the existence of an entirely new social and technological paradigm. Dynamics of technological development demands a development of information infrastructure which exceeds the capacity of single organisation or a single company, becoming the key issue and a foundation for development of particular society or country, which is also affecting the life of its citizens, as it could be proved by ever growing frequency of terms like ‘e-city’, ‘e-citizen’, e-government’, ‘e-society’, in our daily communication.

E-government refers to the development and usage of ICTs applications, which enable better communication with citizens and provide more qualitative and faster services for citizens (Holliday and Yep, 2005; Rorissa et al., 2011; Sá et al., 2016). Specific services that are offered to citizens or enterprises are following: information delivery, posing questions, filing different forms, requiring personal documents or grants (Ndou, 2004; Al-Hujran et al., 2015; Carter et al., 2016), which are increasingly delivered using mobile apps (Joseph, 2019). e-government services are used to some extend by all of the United Nations member states (E-Government for Sustainable Development, 2015). Factors that influence on e-government usage are economical and technical readiness of the countries, government readiness and lower costs (Stier, 2015; Bakunzibake, Klein, Islam, 2019; Pejić Bach, Zoroja, & Vukšić, 2013; Alzahrani et al., 2017).

The main goal of offering public and government services online is to increase efficiency and transparency of government procedures, fostering democracy through open communication and participation and offering better services to citizens and enterprises creating sustainable and resilient societies (Wong et al., 2007; United Nations E-Government Survey, 2018; Hasan et al., 2019). The Global E-government Development (EDGI) benchmarking is introduced and used by the United Nations to evaluate e-government support for sustainable and resilient societies. Acquisition and implementation of digital technology, has become among the most important measure for advancing the development of a particular society and for preventing corruption (Stefanovic et al., 2016; Rose et al., 2015). According to EGDI, citizens of Netherland used the most e-government services in 2014, following by the Republic of Korea and Uruguay (EGDI, 2014). Among the developing countries in Europe, Estonia is one of the leading countries regarding ICTs usage in public administration, which spent 1% of national budget on development and usage of ICTs in public services in the last ten years (Pejic Bach, Zoroja, 2015).

Complete Article List

Search this Journal:
Reset
Volume 16: 1 Issue (2024)
Volume 15: 1 Issue (2023)
Volume 14: 4 Issues (2022): 1 Released, 3 Forthcoming
Volume 13: 4 Issues (2021)
Volume 12: 4 Issues (2020)
Volume 11: 4 Issues (2019)
Volume 10: 4 Issues (2018)
Volume 9: 4 Issues (2017)
Volume 8: 4 Issues (2016)
Volume 7: 4 Issues (2015)
Volume 6: 4 Issues (2014)
Volume 5: 4 Issues (2013)
Volume 4: 4 Issues (2012)
Volume 3: 4 Issues (2011)
Volume 2: 4 Issues (2010)
Volume 1: 4 Issues (2009)
View Complete Journal Contents Listing