A conceptual model of critical success factors for an e-Government crowdsourcing solution

Most e-Government implementations have resulted in failures with many implementations being one-way (government-to-citizen) and mainly informational (Dada, 2006; Cloete, 2012). However, advances in technology provide governments with the opportunity to engage with citizens using new methods, such as crowdsourcing. Successful commercial and open source software implementations of crowdsourcing have sparked interest in its potential use in the public sector. Brabham (2009) advocated for the use of crowdsourcing in the public sector to increase public participation and for governments to access citizens as a source of ideas and solutions. However, crowdsourcing lacks a theoretical and conceptual foundation (Geiger, et al., 2011; Pedersen, et al., 2013). Within e-Government there is also a lack of knowledge regarding the implementation of crowdsourcing platforms (Koch & Brunswicker, 2011). The main research questions is: How are crowdsourcing initiatives able to motivate citizen participation in e-Government? A conceptual model of critical success factors for an e-Government crowdsourcing solution is presented, based on a comprehensive review of relevant literature. The model uses Self-Determination Theory as a basis to examine citizen motivation and the influence of incentives or rewards. The model also addresses system factors such as task clarity and types, management, and feedback. The model examines behavioural intention to use crowdsourcing through the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology. In order to explore this model a sequential explanatory mixed-method approach will be adopted with a quantitative survey, followed by qualitative semi-structured interviews to add richness to the quantitative data. This research benefits future work by building a conceptual foundation for a potential e-Government crowdsourcing solution.