Explanatory factors of the preference and use of electronic administration in Spain

Abstract Currently, many governments offer their citizens public services through the internet (eGovernment). This article analyzes three factors that could explain the use of eGovernment: sociodemographic profile of citizens, levels of quality of public services offered in this way, and the degree of citizen satisfaction with these services. The results show that citizens who prefer to use the internet as a means of contact or who use eGovernment are characterized as being young people, undergraduate students or with a university degree. On the other hand, those who do not use electronic administration or who prefer the face-to-face channel are mostly elderly people or those with basic education. Secondly, although citizens perceive a high quality and have a high degree of satisfaction with these public services, this does not translate into high rates of use of eGovernment. Finally, increasing the use of electronic administration implies in using simple, intuitive and user-friendly interfaces, especially targeting the elderly and those with basic education.

摘要 当前，诸多国家政府通过互联网向民众提供公共服务，即电子政务（eGovernment）。本文分析了三类可解释电子政务使用行为的影响因素：民众的社会人口统计学特征、以此种方式提供的公共服务质量水平，以及民众对这些服务的满意度。研究结果显示，偏好以互联网作为沟通渠道或使用电子政务的民众，多为年轻人、本科生或拥有大学学历者；反之，未使用电子政务或偏好线下办理渠道的民众，则多为老年人或仅接受过基础教育者。其次，尽管民众对这类公共服务的质量感知较高、满意度也较强，但这并未转化为较高的电子政务使用率。最后，提升电子政务的使用率，意味着需要采用简洁、直观且用户友好的界面，尤其面向老年人与仅接受过基础教育的群体。