ICT innovations and E-service delivery: an exploratory study

ICT has become a catalyst for enabling more effective government through better access to services and the democratic process. As public interest in the Internet and e-Technology solutions continues to grow, there is an increasing expectation that they will be utilized in national and local governments for not only more efficient governance but also improving public access to information and services. E-governance initiatives by the governments all over the world include providing online-services to citizens over the internet web portals. This study aims at finding users’ perceptions of the attributes and which determine e-governance online-service quality of Punjab State Power Corporation Limited, Punjab. In exploratory research, review of existing literature was done to collect and compile a pool of potential attributes that measure online-service quality of e-governance. This pool was refined using the qualitative techniques of focus groups and in-depth interviews. The attributes from the pool were used to develop questionnaire for the empirical survey. The data was collected through questionnaires on a sample of 175 respondents from Bathinda, Ludhiana, Patiala and Mohali assuming high internet diffusion rate. The results indicate that required information, provision to contact other users and financial security during online transactions were the most influencing variables. It is also observed that different factors affecting their decisions are associated with their level of education and residential location. This paper concludes with a discussion of contribution and proposes ideas for future studies in this under research area.