The influence of e-participation as antecedent on behavioural intention to use among Sarawak e-filers

It is a global trend that many governments use web-based technologies to keep pace with the various changes arising from the economic environment of the times and to encourage greater participatory government. However, despite tremendous e-Government initiatives to improve efficiency of the government management systems, the actual e-Participation among citizens is still lagging. Hence, this study aimed to explore major factors that might explain e-Participatory behaviour. To this effect, the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model was extended and utilised to: (i) determine the level of e- Participation among Sarawak citizens in the income tax e-Filing initiative; (ii) analyse the performance expectancy, facilitation conditions and effort expectancy of e-Filing services; (iii) determine the level of citizens‘ satisfaction of the e-Filing systems and (iv) measure the e-Filing information quality and systems quality from Sarawak citizens‘ perspective. Quantitative methodology was used and selfadministered questionnaire technique was adopted for data collection. The sample size in this study is 507. The results indicated that e-Participation (ß=. 229), Systems Quality (ß=.449), User Satisfaction (ß=.066), and Performance Expectancy (ß=.149) are significant factors for taxpayers‘ intention to use the e-Filing whereas Information Quality (ß=-.159), Effort Expectancy (ß=-.005), and Facilitating Condition (ß=-.039) are not supported. The findings from this research shed light to the Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia (IRBM) especially for Information Systems managers or Information Technology and Human Resource managers to increase efforts to improve the structure of the Information Systems and System Quality which would benefit users of e-Government services