Determinants of service quality and continuance intention of online services: The case of eTax

Abstract

This article examines the determinants of service quality and continuance intention of online services. We proposed and empirically tested a model with both service and technology characteristics as the main drivers of service quality and subsequent continuance intention of eTax, an electronic government (eGovernment) service that enables citizens to file their taxes online. Our data were collected via a two-stage longitudinal online survey of 518 participants before and after they made use of the eTax service in Hong Kong. The results showed that both service characteristics (i.e., security and convenience) and one of the technology characteristics (i.e., perceived usefulness, but not perceived ease of use) were the key determinants of service quality. Another interesting and important finding that runs counter to the vast body of empirical evidence on predicting intention is that perceived usefulness was not the strongest predictor of continuance intention but rather service quality was. To provide a richer picture of these relationships, we also conducted a post-hoc analysis of the effects of service and technology characteristics on the individual dimensions of service quality and their subsequent impact on continuance intention and found assurance and reliability to be the only significant predictors of continuance intention. We present implications for research and practice related to online services.

A measuring instrument to evaluate e-service quality in a revenue authority setting

“…Hu et al (2009) state that e-service quality is jointly determined by service characteristics and technology characteristics. They, in identifying the dimensions of service quality of online tax services in Hong Kong, adapted SERVQUAL for the service characteristics.…”

“…One of the major factors which influence a person"s decision to adopt e-services is the quality of that service (Rotchanakitumnuai, 2008). Asubonteng and McClearly (1996), Hu, Brown, Thong, Chan, and Tam (2009) and Pinho, De Lurdis Martins and Macedo (2011) found that increased service quality also increases the intention to reuse the specific service.…”

“…Only a limited number of studies (Barnes & Vidgen, 2007;Connolly & Bannister, 2008;Hu et al, 2009;Rotchanakitumnuai, 2008) have contributed to the understanding of e-service quality from the taxpayer"s or tax practitioner"s perspective. These studies do, however, not fully encapsulate the e-service quality perspective of a tax practitioner in a tax authority setting.…”

Diversity and Diffusion of Theories, Models, and Theoretical Constructs in eGovernment Research

“…Five studies [20,24,29,52,58] used TAM and TPB together, four of them [6,24,48,77] used even three theories or models, whereas three [32,68,74] Survey: [6], [8], [9], [12], [16], [20], [24], [29], [32], [48], [49], [52], [58], [63], [67], [68], [74], [77], [76], [79], [86]; Interview: [84], [86], [89]; Secondary Data Analysis: [31]; Case Study: [69] Information System Success Model (DeLone and McLean, 1992McLean, , 2003 Survey: [19], [22], [30], [32], [55], [59], [65], [68], [74], …”

The Critical Organizational Factors of E-Government in Kenya

“…However, despite a lot of interest being drawn into eGovernment, the field is criticized for not having a common definition of e-Government (Hu et al 2009) and also generally lacking clarity and rigor about the factors contributing to its implementation alongside poor treatment of generalization (Heeks and Bailur, 2007). Furthermore, recently, researchers and other stakeholders affected by the eGovernment innovation's impacts have started raising concerns on its high reported failure rates (Heeks and Bailur, 2007).…”