Adoption of e-government services at different maturity levels: a qualitative study in India

Purpose The purpose of this study is to determine the factors that enable citizens to adopt e-government services at different maturity levels: information, two-way communication, transaction and political participation. Design/methodology/approach The study uses a grounded approach by conducting semi-structured interviews. Findings The study reveals that the factors influencing the adoption of e-government services vary at different levels. It identifies 27 influencing factors. In total, 13 of these factors influence adoption at the information level; 13 at the two-way communication level; 25 at the transactional level; and 16 at the political participation level. Auxiliary facilities, connectedness, corruption avoidance, transparency and fairness, customer support and forced adoption, not commonly discussed as influencing factors for e-government adoption in the extant literature, have been revealed in this study. Research limitations/implications This study uses qualitative research and rather than generalization, the focus is explicitly on obtaining an in-depth understanding. Although the sampling used is sufficient for the purpose of this study and allows reasonable conclusions to be drawn; however, it cannot be considered representative of a vast country like India. Academicians and information systems researchers can use these findings for further research. Practical implications This study advances the understanding of e-government adoption. The findings have potential implications for public administrators and policymakers in successfully designing, developing and implementing e-government services at different maturity levels. Originality/value Existing e-government adoption theories are of limited scope and do not capture and specify the complete essence of citizens’ adoption characteristics at different levels of e-government services. Hence, a theoretical gap exists, which this study aims to fill.