Users’ Attitudes towards the Utilization of Online Government and Business Services in Lebanon

General Background Lebanon's economy is a mixture of very strong economic institutions and weak economic institutions The last few years have seen a growing interest in e government and e business in Lebanon. Government agencies in Lebanon are trying to provide services using digital technologies Each business today, considers the world to be its potential market and fights for customers on an international basis The issue facing people in Lebanon is not the shortage of information any more, but how to retrieve, trust and use the retrieved information

Significance of the Study Granted there have been many studies done in Lebanon; however, there was no attempt to study Users’ Attitudes towards the Utilization of Online Government and Business Services in Lebanon per se

The Research Objective The objective of this research is to understand users’ attitude to utilize information and integrated statistical systems in Lebanon

Review of Literature Through a review of literature and related studies, critical factors in people’s attitude towards participation in e government and online business are uncovered. The present study tests a causal model which is a modification of the two theoretical models that were reported in previous literature.

Figure 1: Model of motives, perceived risk and intention to use ICT systems Internal Motives External Motives Perceived Risk Intention to Implement Information and integrated Statistical Systems

Figure 2: Model of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived credibility, and intention to use ICT systems Perceived Usefulness Perceived Ease of Use Perceived Credibility Intention to Implement Information and integrated Statistical Systems

The Suggested Causal Model for the Study

Decomposing the simple correlation coefficient into direct and indirect effects

Methodology

The survey population comprised of graduate students at different universities in Lebanon who work for different public and private firms. There was no access to the names of the population and a large sample of graduate students was selected by convenience sampling. Data for the study were collected using a questionnaire. 581 valid questionnaires were collected with complete information. Data collection was carried out over a three months period during 2008, with the help of different graduate research assistants.

Findings of the Study Public Sector Private Sector

Private sector Data Reduction

F actor A nalysis was used to establish the construct validity of the instrument. The Kaiser-Meyer- Oklin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy indicates that the sample was adequate for the purpose of analysis. The Bartlett’s test of sphericity showed that the chi-square test of was highly significant (p = ).

Multiple regression analysis Factor scores were used as explanatory variables in multiple regression analysis. The regression was highly significant (RSQ = 0.356, F = 60.32, p = 0.000).

Public sector Data Reduction

F actor A nalysis was used to establish the construct validity of the instrument. The Kaiser-Meyer- Oklin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy indicates that the sample was adequate for the purpose of analysis. The Bartlett’s test of sphericity showed that the chi-square test of was highly significant (p = ).

Multiple regression analysis Factor scores were used as explanatory variables in multiple regression analysis. The regression was highly significant (RSQ = 0.241, F = , p = 0.000).

Conclusions and recommendations Participants in this study apparently feel negative about using ICT systems. The results of this study shows that the more complexity of the system the less likely is the user’s intention to utilize it. The empowerment of users to participate in the continuous flow of technological change is the key ingredient for success.

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