Literature review

In recent years, as information technologies widely penetrate within the daily work of human, the adoptions and uses of information technologies bring on significant changes in the particular relationships between governments and citizens, governments and businesses, and governments and governments(Nan et al. 2009), thus, electronic government (e-government) is gradually adopted and used by different countries around the world, meanwhile, e-government becomes an interested topic among the researchers in information technology/information system field. For the definition of e-government, Kraemer and King in 2003 defined that electronic government refers to the use of information technologies to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, transparency and responsibility of public governments. Furthermore, E-government is the use of technology to enhance the access to and delivery of government services to benefit citizens, business partners, and employees. It has the power to create a new mode of public service where all public organizations deliver a modernized, integrated, and seamless service for their citizens (Graham et al. 2007). Therefore, form above previous literatures, researchers realized that through using information technologies, government would operate in an efficient way, and provide more convenience services to citizens. Furthermore, in 2007, Graham, Alan, Tony and Ah Lian Kor stated that e-government can be seen as such a profound change, which is always going to be difficult to evaluate due to its increasingly dynamic and complex multi-dimensions involving the organizational, social, political, cultural, and technical factors. Thus, more and more researchers pay attentions on the factors which would influence e-government adoptions and uses.

Base on previous literatures, most of previous literatures about e-government adoptions and uses were case studies that the researchers focused on particular countries. Meanwhile, the researchers found out that there were different salient factors to influence different countries, and those countries are based on different culture backgrounds. For example, in 2003, Carter and Belanger did a survey for 140 students in the U.S., and the main purpose is to investigate factors which influence citizens’ adoption of e-government services, through used Diffusion of Innovation Theory, they found that relative advantage, compatibility, ease of use and image are the factors which affect the intention of citizens to use e-government services. Also, the findings showed that higher levels of relative advantage, compatibility and image are significantly associated with an increased intention to adopt e-government services. In addition, Lemuria and Vishanth (2008) through compared e-government adoption in the U.K. and U.S., this study found out that there were cultural differences in e-government adoption in the U.K. and the U.S., and results indicated that relative advantage and trust are pertinent in both the U.S. and the U.K., also, this study suggested that e-government adoption barriers such as access and skill may vary by a nation’s demographics and cultural norms. Examples are not only in U.S. and U.K., previous literatures also focused on the developing country, in 2008, in order to investigate the e-government systems application and management in China, through used information technology adoption theories and considered Chinese cultural characteristics, Nan, Xunhua, Guoqing and Patrick proposed a user centric IT/IS evaluation model composed of three determinants, which were perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and perceived fit. Moreover, this study found out that perceived fit was an important antecedent to end users’ evaluation towards e-government application in China. Furthermore, the findings also indicated that the reasons for failures in e-government systems application in China largely lie in the lack of fit, which may root in the long power distance characteristic of the Far Eastern culture. Therefore, cultural perspective should be considered in the research of e-government adoption, moreover, base on previous literatures, there are few researches which focus on the adoption and use of New Zealand e-government services by new immigrants. Thus, my research will focus on India immigrants, and find out the factors which influence their adoption and use of New Zealand e-government services.