Title: The uptake of digital government services: toward digital transformation in the Kingdom of Bahrain

Authors: Jaflah Hassan Al-Ammary

Addresses: College of IT, University of Bahrain Sukhair, P.O. Box: 32038, Kingdom of Bahrain

Abstract: The current study was conducted as part of a grant-funded national project between Information and eGovernment Authority - iGA and University of Bahrain which aims to explain why users are not using the e-government service and why they prefer to access services using non-digital methods in addition to identifying the willingness of non-digital users to use e-government services. The population of the current study included individual who currently do services manually. Therefore, users from three services centres: identity card - ID card, general directorate of traffic - GDT, and electricity and water authority - EWA were selected randomly. The findings of the study revealed that if the iGA are to accelerate public uptake of new e-services, they have to provide good design of e-services which reflect the needs of the public rather than the needs of the government agencies which provide them. Moreover, overcoming cultural inertia is one of the main challenges to e-government implementation that needs a study to support the acceptance and trust in the use of e-government services.

Keywords: digital uptake; e-government; e-services; culture; awareness; digital usage; satisfaction; Kingdom of Bahrain.

DOI: 10.1504/EG.2021.114580

Electronic Government, an International Journal, 2021 Vol.17 No.2, pp.199 - 219

Accepted: 21 Jan 2020
Published online: 27 Apr 2021 *

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