A model for quality assessment of e-services in resource constrained environments

Abstract

Uganda continues to experience high failure rates of e-services especially in the sectors of health, education and agriculture. The failures have been attributed to poor quality of currently available e-services. Increasing implementation of e-services all around the world in both developed and developing economies points to an urgent need for development of highly reliable models for assessing the quality and impact of e-services on the end-users. Such assessment of e-service quality is necessary to ensure continuous improvement in the quality of services delivered to the citizenry and, most importantly, lower failure rates of e-services projects. This study sought to develop a model for assessment of the quality of e-services in resource constrained environments. The study took a cross sectional time horizon. It was conducted in National Water and Sewerage Corporation, a Uganda government agency in the water utility sector. Design Science research methodology was adapted, with the aim of developing a model for assessment of quality of e-services as the artefact. An electronic survey questionnaire was used for data collection with Lime Survey software. 781 respondents across all regions and areas of National Water and Sewerage Corporation in Uganda participated in the survey. The results indicated that the model for assessing the e-service quality is premised on the factors Efficiency, Reliability, Fulfilment, Trust and User Support. In addition to these, three new factors of Feedback, User Experience and Quality Assurance were tested and validated for the first time in Uganda. The regression results indicated a strong and positive relationship between the independent variables above and e-service quality, the dependent variable, with a multiple correlation coefficient (R) of .775. The model validation results by the industry experts indicated that the model is robust and reliable and therefore can be used for assessing e-service quality in Uganda. In addition to the industry experts’ validation, the model was validated with a prototype which instantiated the model as a software artefact. The regression model significantly supports the conclusion that the constructs of efficiency, reliability, fulfilment, trust, user support, feedback, user experience and quality assurance predict 59.6 % e-service quality in resource-constrained environments such as Uganda. The integrated and extended model for the assessment of the quality of e-services can be highly reliable in such environments.