Purpose-E-government implementation evolves through different stages of maturity, enforcing changes in strategies at each level. The transitions of service maturity phases pose continuous challenges to service providers in assessing the e-service quality of web-based services used in government. This study is conducted to propose a multi item scale for assessing the e-service quality of government portals involving transactions. Design/methodology/approach-Factors influencing the e-service quality of government portals were identified from an extensive review of research performed by academic scholars and practitioners. A questionnaire was designed based on a review and interviews with users of e-government applications and was used to conduct a survey of fully operational portals. Responses were obtained and quantitative analyses were performed on the data to develop a scale. This scale can help in evaluating citizen perceived quality of e-services. Findings-Seven constructs-i.e. citizen centricity, transaction transparency, technical adequacy, usability, complete information, privacy and security and usefulness of information-were identified from the analyses, which can be used to assess the demand side service quality of government portals. Practical implications-Despite a well-structured, national-level plan on e-government and adequate funding in India, most of the projects under the scheme are far below the expectation level of citizens. Technology-enabled applications have promised easy access to government services with economic gain in certain cases, but they have not ensured citizens' satisfaction. Improved service quality based on citizens' need and expectation can reduce the gap between design and reality and act as positive trigger for adoption of e-government. This study can help government portal developers get an insight into users' needs to improve the design and implementation of online services. The issues are significant and cannot be overlooked in practice. Originality/value-The paper is original and a research study. It provides an understanding of citizens' perceived quality of e-services and adoption behavior within the framework of the web-based environment of government services.

Does the e-readiness of a country or a state give any insight into the success of their e-government projects? Does scaling up of e-readiness help to measure the acceptance of e-government projects by citizens? Research has failed to provide a direct answer to these questions. While an e-readiness index summarizes the infrastructural condition of a state or country in terms of network readiness and availability of hardware facility; e-government readiness implies the acceptance of e-government projects by the citizens in a state or a country. So, the e-readiness index cannot clearly depict the e-government readiness of a country. Since e-government projects are broadly categorized as Government to Citizen, Government to Business and Government to Government, it becomes difficult to quantify the satisfaction level of the stakeholders. For analysing the acceptance of e-government business models particularly the web based ones, researchers (Yang, 2002; Kašubiene & Vanagas, 2007; Janssen, Kuk & Wagenaar, 2008; Morgeson & Mithas, 2009) often adopted the quality criteria used in evaluating service offered by of e-commerce sites. The most pervasive concept of quality in use is the extent to which a web service meets and/or exceeds a citizen’s/customer’s expectations. Portals at the Federal Government level in India were developed with the idea to form a ‘single window’ access to the facilities provided by the states or union territories to the citizens in an integrated platform. The idea behind such investment on state wise portals was to serve the citizens better but there was hardly any attempt from the government side to assess the acceptance of the portals. Some of the portals have counters to keep a track of visitors and email facilities have been provided to serve queries of the visitors. So the effectiveness of the portals has become a questionable issue today. In this study we have tried to concentrate on Indian State government portals and assess the service quality provided by them. It was observed that State wise Service Quality issues in e-government differ significantly when global parameters like usability, adequacy of information, navigation facility interactivity are considered. So, to evaluate the portals a conceptual framework based on previous research works was proposed. Quality dimensions were identified to assess service quality of government portals and each of the state and the union territory portal was audited based on the parameters proposed like usefulness of information, adequacy of information, citizen centric information, usability, accessibility, interaction, privacy, security and citizen participation.

Research on digital government focus mainly was hitherto on strategic implementation of government services, without an accountability of service quality expected by the users. Good service quality helps in return users and thus can enhance the usage of e-government services. Very few studies which have been done on e-government service quality. Researchers generally adopt multidimensional scale proposed for e-commerce to measure the e-service quality of government projects. But are the two comparable? An empirical research based on conceptual model in this paper highlights to what extent an e-commerce model can be implemented to evaluate the service quality of government digital services offered over the internet. The findings have been explained, which can serve as a valuable input for researchers and practitioners to understand user perceived service quality for e-government portals. The study was based on an Indian Government portal and might be a limitation for taking a holistic approach to address the issues existing in government portals of different countries.