The Role of Quality, Trust, and Empowerment in Explaining Satisfaction and Use of Chatbots in e-government

Abstract

With technology advancements within the field of AI there has been an increased interest in chatbots used for e-government services. Despite this increased interest, there is a knowledge gap in terms of what contributes to the satisfaction with e-government chatbots. To fill this gap, this study investigates factors affecting the satisfaction and use of chatbots from a citizen perspective. To this end, this study builds on the Information Systems success model, by examining the role of key critical antecedents (i.e., information quality, system quality, service quality) and extends it by considering the role citizens’ trusting beliefs and perceived empowerment when using e-government chatbots, in order to explain citizens’ satisfaction and intention to use chatbots. A model that captures the multidimensional and interdependent nature of chatbot success is suggested and tested on data collected from 105 users of e-government chatbots in Norway. The findings indicate that information and service quality positively influence the degree of trusting beliefs by the citizens while all three quality dimensions positively influence empowerment perceived by citizens. The degree of trusting beliefs and empowerment positively affect satisfaction, while satisfaction positively affects intention to use. This study identifies the impact of quality dimensions on trusting beliefs and empowerment and is the first study to investigate both empowerment and trusting beliefs in the context of e-government chatbots.