icegov2012 proceedings

include customers and competitors, the offering, activities and
organization, resources and factor market interactions [36]. “We
must consider which concepts and relationships allow a simplified
description and representation of what value is provided to
customers, how this is done and with which financial
consequences” [37]. As for websites, business model is mainly
determined by their capital sources and profit models, which is
more often used in businesses than government agencies or nonprofit
organizations. Our pilot interviews show that current MFW
websites have four types of investment entities, governments,
non-profit organizations, individuals and enterprises, and their
profit models can be categorized as government websites, nonprofit
websites and enterprise websites. In general, non-profit and
individual invested websites try to represent or pursuit benefits of
MFWs, government invested ones intend to help to improve social
management of MFWs while enterprise invested ones are used to
make money as a e-business platform. Accordingly, their business
models can be classified as “pure public operation”, “supported by
government procurement” and “market operation”. Relationships
between investment entities, profit models and business models of
MFW websites are shown in figure 1.
Government
investment
Non-profit
organization
investment
Individual
investment
Enterprise
investment
Government
websites
Public
welfare
websites
Enterprise
website
Pure public
operation
Supported
by
government
procurement
Market
operation
Figure 1:Relationships between investment entities,
profit models and business models of MFW websites
Different business models mean different incentive mechanisms
and may result in different website effects. Therefore, we propose
hypothesis 1:
H1: Business model affects the effect of MFW websites.
2.3 Website Construction
Website construction refers to technical features or perceived
technical features of a website in this study. Usability and IA
provide valuable explanations for website construction from
different angles. Usability theory examines perceived interface
attributes such as availability, accessibility, readability,
understandability, etc.. Wang and Senecal [38] developed a scale
for website usability including three dimensions: ease of
navigation, speed and interactivity. Al-badi & Mayhew [39]
demonstrated the value of target culture, navigation, layout,
interaction, graphics and color in designing localized business
websites. Karlsson [40] found that graphic design, content and
perceived usability contribute to the perceived expression and
emotional responses of the websites. In these studies, content,
97
accessibility, interactivity navigation, open speed, graphic and
color design are important factors that affect website effect.
IA theory provides some objective guidelines to improve website
usability. Its core idea is “user-centered and to make information
more understandable”. Davenport defined Information
architecture simply a set of aids that match user needs with
information resources [41]. Gullikson [42] examined the impact
of information architecture on the usability of an academic
website and recommended key ingredients: information design,
access tools, and navigational aids. Comparing IA with website
usability theory, we define website construction with two
dimensions, information architecture and technical performance.
Technical performance affects website usability and comprises
complex components. In order to get data more easily, we adopt
open speed to measure it. Content, information organization,
navigation and page presentation are selected to indicate website
information architecture. In the process of investigation, we found
that there are no obvious differences in page presentation between
websites, so it is abandoned for lack of good discrimination.
According to usability and IA theory, website construction
influences its website effect. Four research hypotheses are put
forward as follows:
H2: Information content affects the effect of MFW websites.
H3: Information organization affects the effect of MFW websites.
H4: Website navigation affects the effect of MFW websites.
H5: Open speed affects the effect of MFW websites.
2.4 Social Networking Service
As one of the sociological characteristics of a website, social
networking services help to expand MFWs' social network and
interpersonal communication. Our previous research shows that
interpersonal influence is one of the most important factors for
MFWs to access to the Internet for the first time and interpersonal
network is an important source for them to acquire information
[43]. Previous literatures show that interactivity is an important
indicator of website usability [44]. Therefore, interaction and
community functions of a website could be used to indicate social
networking service. The communication function can help website
users to share information or views and includes BBS, blog,
online groups, etc., while the interaction function helps users to
communicate with the webmaster or manager and mainly involves
the feedback channels on websites. To explore the influence of
social networking services on website effect, hypothesis 6 is put
forward as follows:
H6: Functions for Social Networking service affect the service
effect of MFW websites.
2.5 Website Promotion
From the perspective of network marketing, only when a website
is known by most of the targeted users, could it make full impacts.
In past ten years, e-commerce webmasters have developed various
indicators to measure and adopted many strategies to improve the
awareness of their websites. Our pilot investigation shows that
except that local government websites can be easily found on first
page of Baidu’s search results after 2010, websites of small
government departments and non-profit organizations without
promotions can’t be found easily because Baidu ranks its search
results by bid. The practice of e-business has proved that website