E-government service use intentions in Afghanistan: technology adoption and the digital divide in a war-torn country

Abstract

In this article, we developed and tested an integrated model to predict intention to use e-government services by combining the concepts of technology adoption, the digital divide, and conflict literature through surveys of 360 citizens of Afghanistan. Using a partial least squares approach, we found that components of the access divide and the social divide have significant effects on intentions to use e-government services, and that the perceived intensity of civil conflict and perceived behavioral conflict moderate certain predictors of intention to use e-government services. Implications for e-government service adoption and delivery in digitally divided conflict zones in the contexts of research, policy and practice are also discussed.