Acceptance by the public of the virtual delivery of public services : the effect of affect

Abstract

Little is known about the determinants of acceptance by the general public of virtual delivery of governmental services. The authors conduct and empirical study of the factors that influence the willingness of individuals to consent to a para-authentic virtual experience with a public sector employee as part of the delivery of a public service. This study is based on the theory of social presence and on the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT). The authors test these hypotheses using 224 questionaires completed by persons who have filed a police report using synchronous video-mediated communication (VMC). This multiple regression analysis shows that four variables are likely to predict willingness to use virtual interaction as a part of the delivery of a public service: performance expectations, social presence, social influence, and anxiety. Two findings were especially interesting. First, affective predictors, as opposed to cognitive predictors, were found to be increasing importance for the acceptance by the public of virtual service delivery. Second, social presence emerged as the strongest affective predictor. This study’s empirical findings support the a priori assumption that affective predictors, as opposed to cognitive predictors, are relatively more important in predicting the intention to use virtual technologies, when contrasted with conventional technologies.