Abstract

This study sought to explore factors that determine the public’s acceptance of and adoption behavior toward e-government health applications launched in Saudi Arabia (SA) by the Ministry of Health (MOH) during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research relied on several theories: the technology acceptance model (TAM), information system success model (ISSM), mobile services acceptance model (MSAM), and unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT). The constructs of perceived ease of use (PEOU), perceived usefulness (PU), attitude (ATT), trust (TR), information quality (IQ), facilitating condition (FC), and social influence (SI) were utilized to investigate the user’s intention toward using e-government health applications. The proposed model and its seven hypotheses were tested by conducting a survey across social media among citizens and residents in SA. A total of 785 valid responses were analyzed by SmartPLS and a structural equation modeling technique. After analysis, the results showed that PEOU, PU, ATT, TR, IQ, FC, and SI have positive effects on behavioral intentions. As for contributions, this paper is the first research paper to investigate the adoption of e-government health applications launched by MOH in SA during the COVID-19 pandemic and to provide a theoretical framework for pursuing future research work in a similar scope.

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