Understanding E-Government Competition: A Comparative UTAUT Study of the Adoption of Government and Third-Party Digital Tax-Filing Solutions in Germany

The goal of this research was to identify which factors influence German residents’ intention to use digital tax-filing services, with a particular focus on the differences between the factors influencing the intention to use the governmental service ELSTER and those influencing the intention to use third-party software. This study was conducted using the UTAUT model and its constructs of Performance Expectancy, Effort Expectancy, Social Influence and Facilitating Conditions, with Trust in Government added as an additional independent variable. The research found that the factors influencing behavioral intention were not uniform across the two alternatives. While the UTAUT construct of Performance Expectancy was validated for third-party software as it was the most significant factor for behavioral intention, this effect was not significant for ELSTER. The most important finding, however, was the significant negative influence of Effort Expectancy on the intention to use ELSTER. This result was highly unexpected, as it suggests that those who find ELSTER easier to use are less likely to intend to use it, which in turn also means that the likelihood is higher for those that find ELSTER harder to use, making the paradox nature of this result apparent. In summary, the findings show that the factors influencing the intention to use digital tax-filing solutions differ strongly between Government and third-party software.