Exploring Factors Affecting Citizens’ Acceptance to Use E-Participation in Malaysian Local Governments Through an Extended UTAUT Model

Abstract

Local governments in Malaysia are frequently confronted with several unexpected difficulties and limitations while striving to provide optimized public services, especially to individuals residing in specific regions. After thoroughly examining previous studies and analyzing current difficulties, the digital technologies of e-participation may play an important role in fostering successful collaboration between local communities and local government agencies. E-participation in local government is now recognized as a digitalization strategy for enriching the democratization culture in citizen-government relations, especially at the grassroots level. This article explores the current understanding of the relationship between Malaysian citizens’ acceptance and use of e-participation provided by their respective local governments, which also will oversee the moderating effect analysis of demographics. This study framework integrates with slight extensions to the original Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model. This study uses a quantitative methodology involving a survey questionnaire with convenience sampling applied to respondents comprised of 484 local Malaysian citizens via offline and online methods. For data analysis, IBM SPSS Statistics Version 27 software was utilized for Pearson correlation analysis, while SmartPLS 3.0 software was used for moderating effect analysis via Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The findings show that all citizens’ acceptance factors correlate with using e-participation. In the meantime, all 20 demographics’ moderating effects were tested, but no significant relationship was found. This study is significant in that it revisits several relevant literature reviews to enrich the development of the research framework and provide a necessary foundation for understanding the use of e-participation within Malaysian local governments.