The Moderating Effect of Gender on Adopting Digital Government Innovations in Ethiopia

TL;DR

This study examines how gender influences the adoption of digital government innovations in Ethiopia, revealing that women are more influenced by social factors and external support despite perceiving the system as difficult to use.

Contribution

It is the first to analyze gender's moderating effect on digital government adoption in Ethiopia using SEM and the UTAUT model, highlighting gender-specific influences.

Findings

Gender moderates the relationship between facilitating conditions and usage behavior.

Women are more likely to use digital innovations due to social influence and external support.

Women still intend to use digital government despite perceiving it as difficult to use.

Abstract

Digital government innovation is being recognised as a solution to many problems faced by governments in providing services to their citizens. It is especially important for low-income countries where there are resource constraints. This research was aimed at exploring the moderating effect of gender on the adoption of a digital government innovation in Ethiopia based on the UTAUT model (n=270) and using structural equation modeling (SEM). The results reveal that gender only moderates the relationship between facilitating conditions and usage behavior of government employees to adopt the digital government innovation which is inconsistent with other findings. Another key finding was that even though the innovation was regarded as not being easy to use, women identified that they would still use it because of the social influence from the peers and the bosses. This finding suggests that women government employees who obtain external support are more likely to use digital government innovations compared with men who are unlikely to use it even if they were facilitated. The paper recommends that governments of low-income countries like Ethiopia should design appropriate policies that encourage women in digital government.