Understanding the Factors Influencing E-Government Adoption in Sri Lanka: An Integrated Model of UMEGA and Extended UTAUT2.

Abstract

The effective adoption of electronic government (e-government) services is crucial for enhancing public services, particularly in developing countries like Sri Lanka. Understanding the drivers that lead citizens to use and recommend egovernment services is essential for ensuring long-term engagement and diffusion. However, despite the significant investments in digital infrastructure, Sri Lanka continues to experience low adoption rates in the context of egovernment. The present study investigates the key factors influencing the adoption of e-government services among Sri Lankan citizens using an extended theoretical framework, which was developed by integrating the Unified Model of E-Government Adoption (UMEGA) and the extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT2). The proposed model encompasses context factors: performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, perceived risk, user factors: price value, facilitating conditions, hedonic motivation, habit, personal innovativeness in IT, trust in government, and system factors: perceived information quality, perceived system quality, perceived service quality. The study collected data from 100 respondents using a structured questionnaire, employing the convenience sampling technique. The model explained 42% of the variance in attitude, 59% in use behaviour, and 57% in intention to recommend. All the context factors significantly affected attitude, while price value, habit, facilitating conditions, and perceived service quality impacted use behaviour. Trust in government directly impacts on the recommendation intention of e-government services. The model disclosed acceptable model fit (SRMR = 0.057) and moderate predictive relevance (Q² = 0.44 for intention to recommend). The findings underscore the critical importance of system improvement, trust-building, and user engagement strategies to enhance peer-driven recommendation of e-government services. These strategies are essential in the Sri Lankan context to drive adoption and sustained use of governmental digital services.