The efficiency of freedom: Single parents' domestication of mandatory e-government channels

The Danish e-government strategy aims to increase the efficiency of public sector administration by making e-government channels mandatory for citizens by 2015. Although Danish citizens have adopted e-government channels to interact with public authorities, many also keep using traditional channels. Previous studies have analyzed citizens’ channel choice in non-mandatory settings, and mostly surrounding a single isolated channel. To cover these gaps we present a mixed method study of citizens’ actual use of e-government channels using domestication theory as our framework. Our findings indicate that e-government and traditional channels are often used simultaneously, and citizens’ perceptions and previous histories with public authorities influence channel choice. Further, citizens’ existing routines related to third-party non-official channels also influence their interaction with public authorities. Moreover, we find a series of unmet needs which leads to information requests on traditional channels concerning online transactions. Based on the study we offer recommendations to practioners to increase the use of e-government channels and reduce traffic on traditional channels.