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Abstract: This paper addresses the issue of Japanese e-government benefits evaluation and stresses the need to develop a new measurement tool to evaluate e-government services from the perspective of the Japanese citizen and government service provider. While research has used SERVQUAL, SERVPERF and Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) as evaluation tools to measure quality of services, most of these tools are developed to evaluate quality of services from the perspective of the user (citizen) or service provider. In this paper, we propose a new evaluation tool, namely Satisfaction-Satisfaction Matrix (SSM), to gauge both the perceptions of the citizen and service provider concerning the performance of e-government services. The matrix not only acts as a useful tool to identify satisfaction responses, but also serves as a strategic decision making aid in the allocation of resources for improving e-government services.
Keywords: E-Government, E-Government Benefits, Evaluation Models, Satisfaction-Satisfaction Matrix.
1. Introduction
Increasingly governments are harnessing the potential of information technology, particularly web-based systems, to control costs, improve service effectiveness and build a stronger link between citizens and government (Verdegem and Verleye, 2009). This is evidenced by the increased adoption and uptake of egovernment initiatives by various countries (Wong et al., 2009, 2011; Norris and Reddick, 2013). One country, which has witnessed increased e-government growth, is Japan (Lee et al., 2005; Evans and Yen, 2006; Kudo, 2008). In 2001, the Japanese government set out a plan (e-Japan Strategy) to leapfrog the country into the information era. More specifically, one of the key goals is to invigorate and enhance the uptake of egovernment service delivery in Japan. A major outcome of this program is to allow citizens to have access to a number of e-government services which they did not have access to previously. In response, many government departments have introduced e-government services as a means to enhance service quality and become more responsive to the overall needs of its customers. While research has used SERVQUAL, SERVPERF and Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) as evaluation tools to measure quality of services, most of these tools are developed to evaluate quality of services from the perspective of either the user (citizen) or service provider. In this paper, we propose the use of Satisfaction-Satisfaction Matrix (SSM) to evaluate the satisfaction of various benefits derived from...