Maryam Hasanvand; Saeeid Zarandi
Abstract
1- INTRODUCTION
The presence of electronic websites has led to an ever-growing use of electronic services by the citizens and more importantly, it has increased their level of satisfaction. Organizations offering such a service are obligated to guarantee a desirable level of quality as well as responding ...
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1- INTRODUCTION
The presence of electronic websites has led to an ever-growing use of electronic services by the citizens and more importantly, it has increased their level of satisfaction. Organizations offering such a service are obligated to guarantee a desirable level of quality as well as responding to the expectations of citizens in this regard. Electronic service quality involves the citizens’ understanding of this concept based on their expectations of electronic transactions or other forms of services. For companies offering superior quality in online services, it is essential to gain insight into the citizens’ understanding of the service quality and how they attempt to assess it. Given the actions taken by the government in the area of providing electronic public services in line with executing the “Cadastre” law in the country, the subject of immediate registration of documents and removing paperwork from official notary bureaus became operational in Iranian state organization for registration of deeds and properties, after almost 80 years. The present study seeks to provide an answer to the following question: Has the electronic service quality of notary bureaus been effective on the satisfaction of citizens in Lorestan Province?
2- THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Electronic service quality involves the citizens’ understanding of this concept resulting from their expectations of electronic transactions or other forms of services. For companies offering superior online service quality, it is essential to gain insight into the citizens’ understanding of the service quality and how they attempt to assess it. Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Malhotra (2005) laid out seven major aspects of electronic service quality: efficiency, fulfillment, system availability, privacy, responsiveness, compensation, and contact. Furthermore, satisfaction involves the expectations of clients regarding the quality of services, the extent of which may increase relative to the expectation of a better quality. Offering a sense of satisfaction to the citizens requires regular, comprehensive planning which enables the managers to draw a hopeful future for the citizens by providing a desirable image of the organization as well as developing an effective interaction. Lack of satisfaction in the majority of citizens or even a considerable portion of their population can be harmful for any social and organizational order. Mihelis, Grigoroudis, Siskos, Politis and Malandrakis (2001) pointed out the main aspects of satisfaction as the following: Personnel, service, products, access, and image.
3- METHODOLOGY
In terms of purpose, timeframe, variable control, and data processing operation, the present inquiry is an applied, retrospective, predictor, descriptive-scientific study, respectively. Also, the survey approach was employed in conducting this study. In addition, cluster sampling was used given the equal number of present notary bureaus as well as the fact that the population of the study was known beforehand. Considering the importance of the sample population in this study, its size has been estimated as 378 individuals according to Cochran sampling formula. Consequently, in terms of the spatial domain, this study was carried out in a number of selected notary bureaus of Lorestan Province; the criteria for sample selection was indicated through observing the density and congestion of citizens as well as the geographical location of bureaus in different regions of the province. Finally, the multiple-item scale for assessing electronic service quality by Parasuraman et al. (2005) as well as the customer satisfaction measurement survey by Mihelis et al.(2001) were used.
4- RESULTS & DISCUSSION
ITo verify the hypotheses of the study, the impact of every predictor variable including efficiency, fulfillment, system availability, and privacy on the citizens’ satisfaction were examined. The impact factor and significance for the main hypothesis as well as the other four secondary hypotheses were more than 0.7 and 1.96, respectively. As a result, the entire hypotheses of the study are confirmed. Additionally, all the statistical indices in the final model of the study involved acceptable domains, and a proper fitness as a result.
5- CONCLUSIONS & SUGGESTIONS
The results of verifying the main hypothesis of the conceptual model using LISREL software showed a positive, significant impact of electronic service quality on the satisfaction of citizens. Furthermore, the results also showed that aspects including efficiency, fulfillment, system availability, and privacy involved positive, significant impact on the satisfaction of citizens with a 95% confidence level. In addition, the results showed a proper fitness in the model of the study. In this regard and given the positive path coefficient concerning each aspect, it can be concluded that the impact of all aspects on the satisfaction of citizens was positive. In other words, aspects concerning the electronic service quality of notary bureaus for documents and properties involved positive, significant impact on the satisfaction of citizens. This means that, improving any of the aforementioned aspects in the study would lead to an increase in the citizens’ level of satisfaction. Meanwhile, the electronic service quality and efficiency involved the highest impacts; subsequently, in order to improve the citizens’ level of satisfaction, special attention must be paid to the features of electronic service system such as offering accurate, precise, and on time information for present requests, correct setup and implementation of the system, and precise function of transactions.