PurposeThis study examines the effect of multidimensional constructs on citizen loyalty to e-government services. More specifically, it examines the effects of service quality, trust and satisfaction on loyalty to these services.Design/methodology/approachThe data were collected via a questionnaire that was completed by 780 foundation-year students in government universities in Saudi Arabia. The students who participated in the study had used a unified system provided by the Ministry of Education in Saudi Arabia for university admission. The data were analysed using structural equation modelling.FindingsThe key findings revealed that the factors service quality, trust in government, trust in e-government services and citizen satisfaction play a significant role in developing citizen loyalty to e-government services. Trust in government has the strongest direct effect on citizen loyalty to e-government services, and service quality has the strongest total effect on citizen loyalty. In contrast, citizen satisfaction has the least significant influence on citizen loyalty to e-government services.Originality/valueThis study proposes a new model for citizen loyalty to e-government services that combines the service quality model and trust theory. In addition, this study is among the first to categorise trust into three factors – trust in government, trust in e-government and disposition to trust – and integrate them into a model. Furthermore, the study reveals the roles of satisfaction and service quality in developing citizen loyalty. The findings of this study fill a gap in knowledge on citizen trust in, satisfaction with and loyalty to e-government services.

Although health data standards are perceived to be the essential solution for interoperability barriers within medical IT systems, the level of adoption of those standards still remains frustratingly low. Little is known about the barriers facing their adoption within the healthcare organizations context. In addressing this gap in the literature, based on IT related standards adoption theories such as Diffusion of Innovation Theory and the theories surrounding the Economics of Standards, a qualitative multiple-case study was undertaken in Saudi Arabia to investigate those barriers. The results exposed that few standards were adopted because of four broad reasons, managerial, technical, educational and governmental. While some of the findings can be rooted to those related standards theories, others can be underpinned through the normative literature. Core barriers are the lack of a national regulator and a data exchange plan, and the lack of an adequate policy regarding medical IT systems and information management and national healthcare system; also important are technical barriers and the switching costs to the standards. The outcome of this study can be used in forming effective interventions when planning to use health data standards and, in particular those in developing countries.

Few studies have examined the antecedents of citizen satisfaction in relation to mandatory egovernment services pertaining to promising sectors such as education. This study was thus aimed at developing and empirically test a model based on a blend of information systems success models, in conjunction with trust theory. In Saudi Arabia, the Ministry of Education has launched a mandatory egovernment service intended to assist high school graduates in their university academic admission process. To test the model, a questionnaire was constructed and data from 780 university students were collected. The findings show that the perceived usefulness of and trust in e-government mediated the indirect effect of both system quality and information quality on citizen satisfaction. System quality exhibited the strongest such overall total effect on citizen satisfaction. Policymakers can take advantage of the findings in adjusting the resources required to increase citizen satisfaction with mandatory services in education.

Purpose Recent studies indicated that the level of adoption of health data standards in healthcare organisations remains frustratingly low worldwide although health data standards have been perceived to be an essential tool for interoperability barriers within health information systems. The relevant literature still lacks significant studies concerning the issues of the adoption process of health data standards in healthcare organisations, and in particular those in developing nation. In addressing this gap in knowledge, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the adoption decision of health data standards in tertiary healthcare organisations in Saudi Arabia, and to develop a technology-organisation-environment list that contains the critical factors influencing their adoption. Design/methodology/approach A multiple-case study methodology was conducted in Saudi Arabia and different data collection methods were used included semi-structured interviews with different decision makers at various levels and departments of the subject organisations, and documents analysis to identify critical factors to the adoption decision of health data standards. Findings The findings demonstrated a list of key factors from different aspects impacting the adoption decision of health data standards in the subject organisations. The technological factors are complexity and compatibility of health data standards, IT infrastructure, switching costs, market uncertainties, systems integration and enhancing the use of advanced systems. The main organisational factors are the lack of adequate policies and procedures and information management plan, resistance to change, data analysis and accreditation. The core environmental factors are the lack of national regulator and data exchange plan, national healthcare system and the shortage of professionals. Research limitations/implications The results from the qualitative data were difficult to generalise to other populations. For example, the structure of the health sector varies from country to country as each health sector has its own characteristics that affect and are affected by national circumstances. In order to provide a more grounded theory resulting from a qualitative study, further examination by conducting quantitative studies is required. In addition, the TOE approach does not take into account the sociotechnical issues and further research is required in this area. Practical implications The investigation into the adoption decision of health data standards in tertiary healthcare organisations in Saudi Arabia has led to the development of a technology-organisation-environment list that contains the critical factors influencing their adoption. The research outcome has addressed the gap in knowledge of the adoption of health data standards in healthcare organisations. It also provides the decision maker, and in particular those in developing nations, with better understanding of the adoption process of those standards to better judge and to develop suitable strategy of adoption interventions. Originality/value Although recent studies indicated that the level of adoption of health data standards in healthcare organisations remains frustratingly low, the prior studies related to health data standards missed out on the exploration of the adoption decision of different types of health data standards in healthcare organisations and the critical factors influencing their adoption. Research on health data standards adoption based out of a developing country such as Saudi Arabia can also potentially provide several new insights on standards practices.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to empirically examine the utility of information systems (IS) success models in mandatory e-government services, as opposed to the volitional ones that have been the focus of previous studies. The models include the technology acceptance model (TAM) (1989) and Seddon’s model (1997), which involve three (ease of use, usefulness and citizens satisfaction) and four variables (system quality, information quality, usefulness and citizen satisfaction). Design/methodology/approach The models were compared based on a survey conducted on 780 foundation year students of government universities in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Government has launched a mandatory e-government service geared to assist high school graduates in the university academic admission process. The goodness-of-fit and parsimony of fit indices and the explanatory power were used to compare the two models. Findings The structural equation modeling techniques revealed that overall, the two models both exhibited reasonable fit with the collected data, whereas TAM showed the best fit to the sample data and yielded superior goodness-of-fit indices over Seddon’s model. In terms of explanatory power, Seddon’s model predicted 28% (R2 = 0.28) of the variance explained for citizen satisfaction, whereas TAM predicted 21% (R2 = 0.21). All the parsimony of fit indices favored TAM over Seddon’s model. Research limitations/implications This study examined the validity of TAM and Seddon’s model, using citizen satisfaction as the dependent variable to compare them. TAM and Seddon’s model were modified to better fit the current research context of mandatory e-government services; thus, the findings may not hold for their original or other voluntary settings. In addition, the focus on a single survey for a certain time in a certain territory of mandatory e-government service may have limited the generalizability of the results to other mandatory contexts. Future research should make use of large, cross-sectional samples in different mandatory contexts to enhance result generalization. Practical implications This study’s findings can provide e-government practitioners with deeper perceptions of how to address citizen satisfaction with mandatory e-government services. The results exposed usefulness as the common and major construct, having the strongest influence on citizen satisfaction in both TAM and Seddon’s model; thus, maximizing the benefits of e-government services for citizens is crucial to their success. The causal relationship between information quality and citizen satisfaction was not supported. This supports the perspective that e-government services are currently evolving quickly, becoming more integrated and easier-to-use, generally requiring only a few clicks and less information. Originality/value This study has extended the assessment of the validity of IS success models to a mandatory IS usage setting. The comparison study of different IS success models is crucial as it acts as a guide for researchers to determine the trade-off between the models used to conduct research on a particular context. The study concludes that TAM is the most parsimonious and universal model for the study of user satisfaction in mandatory contexts. The findings will provide e-government practitioners with insights into IS success measures suited to enhance the effectiveness of newly and future mandated e-government services.

Government organizations in the Gulf Cooperation Council region are governed by strict rules and regulations. In such a context, most of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) projects are managed by the national ERP vendors. The aim of this paper is to explore Key Influencing Factors (KIFs) from the perspective of national ERP vendors throughout pre-implementation and during implementation of ERP projects. This research specifically focuses on the ERP implementations in government organizations in the Gulf Cooperation Council region. To achieve research objectives, we conducted a mixed methods study on 10 national ERP vendors involved in government sector projects in Saudi Arabia -the country which represents a 90% market share in Gulf Cooperation Council region. KIFs were identified through in-depth group interviews and prioritized using a multi-criteria decision analysis method (i.e. Analytic Hierarchy Process -AHP). Findings suggested a list of KIFs (15) that are grouped into four main categories namely sponsors and leadership, IT capabilities, change management, and project management. The prioritization of the KIFs by means of the AHP method reveals the ERP capabilities and the stakeholder managers to be the most important factors, and user orientation and ERP-business alignment to be the least important ones.Findings of this study would extend the knowledge of ERP implementations from the vendor perspective in the government sector; and propose a set of clearly understood and prioritized KIFs for practitioners to develop strategies appropriate for ERP implementation interventions.

Purpose -This paper seeks to carry out a critical study of health data standards and adoption process with a focus on Saudi Arabia. Design/methodology/approach -Many developed nations have initiated programs to develop, promote, adopt and customise international health data standards to the local needs. The current status of, and future plans for, health data and related standards in developing countries are still questionable due to the absence of government actions, plans and related studies. However, the development of interoperable standards not only technically defines a method of interoperation between the different systems in a network but most importantly represents a proposal for the future of complex socio-technical systems that is the shape of a national health information network and therefore a complex balance between different types of requirements including organisational, social and managerial aspects must be managed. This reaffirms the need for a more in-depth study to evaluate the adoption of health information technology-related standards at the decision-making stage in developing countries. Based on diffusion of innovation theory and the theories surrounding the economics of standards, a case study method was applied in Saudi Arabia to study the adoption process of health data standards. Findings -The preliminary analysis findings revealed that there are 18 factors influencing the decision-making adoption process of acquiring certain standards. Research limitations/implications -Qualitative study methods have been employed in the present study that have shed light on the many issues that need to be addressed in this field. Studies involving other countries including advanced nations should be done for which the present results have economic, social and educational implications. Practical implications -The present study and findings should help inform policy and decision makers in developing health systems with the potential creation of information and structure that can sustain future and improved systems. Originality/value -This paper makes a novel contribution at both academic and practical levels since both the academics and practitioners, who are devoted to the ongoing use of health data standards, still lack a significant body of evidence with regard to the factors that influence their adoption.

Although a large portion of the literature explains various supports by top management to enhance the overall success of the implementation of enterprise information systems, there remain some limitations in studies pertaining to how the characteristics of top management can have an influence on successful acquisition. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of top management characteristics on the overall success of enterprise information systems. It aims to offer an in-depth understanding of the necessary characteristics through a cross-case analysis approach based on two contradictory government organizations in Saudi Arabia—one with successful implementation and the other with a failed enterprise resource planning system. The results expose various characteristics such as those related to business leadership and abilities and technological cognition and awareness. The results can be developed into a strategy to enhance awareness as well as top management participation.