Often referred as Government to Citizen (G2C) egovernment services, many governments around the world are developing and utilizing ICT technologies to provide information and services to their citizens. In Saudi Arabia (KSA) egovernment projects have been identified as one of the top government priority areas. However, the adoption of egovernment is facing many challenges and barriers including technological, cultural, organizational which must be considered and treated carefully. This paper explores the key factors of user adoption of e-government services through empirical evidence gathered by survey of 460 Saudi citizens including IT department employees from different public sectors. Based on the analysis of data collected the researchers were able to identify some of the important barriers and challenges from these different perspectives. As a result, this study has generated a list of possible recommendations for the public sector and policymakers to move towards successful adoption of e-government services in Saudi Arabia.

Abstract:As internet growth provides new communication pathways and transaction models, many countries are positioning to take advantage of the possibilities for effective and efficient provision of government services to their populations. E-government is a form of information system and requires not only appropriate infrastructure to deliver it but also a level of e-readiness within government and the population. The objective of this paper is to review the available literature about e-government implementation stages, its challenges and benefits. This paper gathers and consolidates several relevant issues regarding e-government such as the definitions of e-government and e-readiness, classification of implementation stages, advantages of e-government implementation and particularly focuses on the challenges of e-government implementation. Analysing a brief study of Saudi Arabia's developing e-government programme indicates that most of the issues raised in the literature are relevant. It is expected that this review will form a conceptual basis for a new wave of research into effective e-government acceptance and adoption.

Many governments around the world aim seriously to make their services available online and deliver it to their citizens in professional and secure manner. E-government services aims to improve and facilitate the communication between government and citizens by increasing the usage of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in government operations. It will provide all government services in electronic form to all citizens in a timely, easy, high quality and effective manner with great productivity and time savings. However, user acceptance is one of the essential keys for adoption and success of e-government application and services. Many studies emphasize that trust is one of the important factors in the adoption studies of e-government. This paper examines the effect of trust as independent variable of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model on user’s acceptance and use of e-government services in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Based on the amended (UTAUT) model we study the impact of trust on the adoption of e-government services form citizens’ perception.

This paper presents findings from a study of factors affecting the rate of diffusion and adoption of online retailing in Saudi Arabia. In general, Saudi retailers have not responded actively to the global growth of online retailing. Accordingly, this research was conducted to find the key factors involved in this phenomenon. A major finding presented here, is that both buyers and sellers emphasize the need for government involvement to support and promote development of online commerce. Particularly, it indicates the need for strategic government initiatives to provide regulation, legislation, education, and trusted infrastructure for secure payment and delivery. Saudi Arabia presents a unique cultural, technological and political context for the development of e-commerce. We highlight the particular motivators and potential benefits of Saudi government involvement in e-commerce development. A new model for formulating roles and strategic government initiatives to support the successful diffusion of online retailing in KSA is presented and discussed. This will be of interest to any following the development of e-commerce and the information economy in the Arab nations.

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