The role of cultural values in the individual intention to accept administration e-services (ITA E-Ad): a two country study

E-services, if accepted by users, have the potential to improve the relation of the Administration with the citizen (Heeks 2002). In France, Accenture Institute Study found that, by the end of 2006, 74 percent of French Citizens were seduced by the Administration e-services. But it is not the case of all countries. In Maghreb countries, for example, despite incentives and media campaigns that encourage them to go online for government and private transactions, most Tunisians, Moroccans and Algerians still hesitate to use the Internet services. So it seems that in some countries, citizens are unwilling to use e-administration services. In Lebanon, despite the country growing debt, Administration continues investing in Information Technology (IT), and e-administration has become the government priority. However, Lebanese do not often use Internet. Studies found that only 28 percent of Lebanese use the Internet services. Will the Lebanese citizens use the Administration’s e-services? What are the external and internal variables that influence the acceptance and use of these e-services at the first stages of the acceptance process? Is there any individual’s cultural value that influences the evaluation of the IT and the e-services acceptance? This work-in-progress develops an integral model of users’ intention to accept e-administration services (ITA e-ad Model). It captures the influence of different external and internal variables on e-services acceptance and use at the first stages of the acceptance process. The ITA e-ad Model focuses on the association between (1) Administration e-services perceived outcomes (2) individual’s cultural variables, specifically Hofstede (1980) cultural values (masculinity/femininity, individualism/collectivism, power distance, and uncertainty avoidance), (3) environmental variables, and (4) their evaluations in the first stages of the acceptance process. The innovation of this model is that it focuses on the association between cultural values and the evaluations of the Administration e-services acceptance. This model can help Administrations better deploy and manage their IT investments by better understanding their citizens. Administration’s communication can incorporate these cultural values that influence the evaluation of e-services acceptance