Does E-Government Measure up to E-Business? Comparing End-User Perceptions of U.S. Federal Government and E-Business Websites

This paper examines the federal government's success in implementing and providing high-quality service through e-government, something that has received very little attention. We define quality from the perspective of the end-users of the federal agency websites, as measured through customer survey data. Using data from the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), we compare the performance of federal agency websites across a range of relevant variables with a private sector equivalent, e-business websites. Our findings suggest that federal e-government websites are not yet, in the aggregate, providing the same level of quality as their e-business counterparts. We also find significant variability among federal agencies. We discuss the implications of these findings to e-government performance measurement, performance benchmarking, and the market-centered theories of administrative reform driving e-government and similar transformations to government practice