Mobile services use and citizen satisfaction in government: integrating social benefits and uses and gratifications theory

Purpose Citizen satisfaction with the government is a longstanding and continuous concern in public administration. However, past research did not investigate the effect on satisfaction with the government in the context of mobile government (m-government). The purpose of this paper is to evaluate how the social benefits of citizens using m-government affect their satisfaction with the government. Design/methodology/approach Grounded in the uses and gratifications theory (UGT), the authors suggest that the satisfaction in m-government should be constructed in terms of the satisfaction with m-government and the satisfaction with the government. The research model of citizen satisfaction in the context of m-government is tested through partial least squares (PLS) (SmartPLS 2.0) based on data collected from a survey study in China. Findings The results indicate that the three important social benefits, e.g. convenience, transparency and participation, are positively associated with process gratification, whereas only convenience is positively associated with content gratification. The results suggest that both process gratification and content gratification are positively associated with citizen satisfaction with the government. Furthermore, the research suggests that process and content gratification have a mediating role, whereas compatibility has a moderating role. Practical implications This research provides insights to practitioners on how to facilitate citizen satisfaction by increasing citizens’ social benefits and improving process and content gratification. Originality/value This study contributes to the literature by offering a framework for analyzing the impact of citizens’ use of m-government on their satisfaction with the government. The work also contributes to UGT by categorizing user gratifications into process gratifications, content gratifications and citizen satisfaction with the government.