The advancement of social media platforms has provided unprecedented advantages to governments across the four corners of the globe. The potential to realise objectives of enriching dialogue between e-governments and citizens has reached a new level (Tejedo-Romero et al., 2022; Baldauf & Zimmerman, 2020), creating synergies between different governmental entities and organisations for the citizen benefit (Ahn, 2012); stimulating holistic e-participation interactions that involve multiple relevant stakeholders; leveraging government efforts in improving e-government services to civilians (Greger et al., 2014); enhancing policy-making and trust in government (Distel et al., 2022; Sitthipon et al., 2022); and bringing government transparency into new high levels (Triantafillidou et al., 2022). These advantages have been realised from the “multiplier” effects of knowledge management and innovative coproduction (Saylam & Yildiz, 2022). However, scholars have debated the truthfulness and significance of e-government strategies’ impact on citizens’ satisfaction (Aladwani & Dwivedi, 2018; AL-Kaabi, 2023). Many scholars have claimed that the objectives listed above depend on how positively civilians perceive the value and risk of e-government services (Bayaga, 2022). They should be the ultimate goals for any government or the outcomes for evaluating social media use in government (Shan et al., 2011). Perceived value includes dimensions like trust in government, accountability, integrity, and others (Halachmi & Greiling, 2013) that can keep citizens' time, cost, and quality concerns under the belt.
The knowledge-creation implications of enabling user-to-government interactions are manifold but need to be more precise. On the one hand, the shared spaces of constructive public discussion have created a new potential for user satisfaction aspirations and shaped mature public opinion as fueled by the knowledge exchange in operation (AL-Kaabi, 2023; Mkude & Wimmer, 2013; Zheng et al., 2013; Hammami et al., 2021) involving multiple stockholders, being: management, citizens, government businesses or employees (Al-Hassan et al., 2015). In parallel lines with the theoretical lens of “Public Deliberation Theory” (Habermas, 1989) and “Social Representation Theory” (Rana & Dwividei, 2017), this outcome has been among the expected advantages of governments harnessing the use of “informatisation” (Zoo et al., 2017). On the other hand, many critics have revealed that such dynamics add further pressure on the already-strained budgets of many governments worldwide at the expense of more urgent needs and causes (Greger et al., 2014). This has pushed some observers to suspect the true intentions of politicians behind e-government initiatives and attribute them to serving their agendas rather than achieving public good and reviving democracy (Charbaji et al., 2020).
More dangerously, the knowledge-creation dynamics usually reproduce filtered and prejudiced information, creating polarised and socially fragmented insights and input at a mass scale and exposing the knowledge-creation process to severe suspicions. This, in return, shall limit innovation opportunities to leverage citizen satisfaction and, in the best scenarios, will merely maintain the status quo (AL-Kaabi, 2023; Venkatesh et al., 2012). Amongst the most prominent incidents where knowledge creation dynamics mediated the relationship between social media usage and citizen satisfaction and created a set of closed groups of like-minded individuals at a massive scale on social media were the 2016 U.S. Presidential elections (Somula et al., 2019) and results of the 2016 Britain BREXIT referendum (Hansson & Page, 2022). Technologically speaking, government authorities are confronted by critical ICT implementation challenges. Hence, the full potential of e-Government to enhance citizen satisfaction is far from reaching its potential (Mostafa & Beshir, 2023). Indeed, Norris and Reddick (2013) have doubted that knowledge creation is not transformative on e-government platforms. They stressed that local e-Government, for example, is one way from the government to individuals, and there is either tiny or insignificant evidence that it is beneficial in any matter. They attributed this shortfall to focusing on platform management's information systems (IS) technology perspective, resulting in a deficiency of citizen-oriented services. This is not very easy because citizens’ needs are ever-changing and vary across different periods (Venkatesh et al., 2012).
Information technology's (IT) investment in a country's infrastructure cannot be understated. IT is crucial in enabling efficient communication, data processing, service delivery, and knowledge exchange and innovation across various sectors of the economy and society (Alghatam, 2021). Investing in IT infrastructure can bring significant benefits, including enhanced productivity and competitiveness. By reducing costs, increasing quality, and enabling new opportunities, IT infrastructure can improve the performance and output of businesses, industries, and public services. For instance, IT infrastructure can facilitate e-commerce, online education, telemedicine, smart manufacturing, and digital government (Martin-Shields et al., 2022; Alraja et al., 2016).
In addition, IT infrastructure plays a crucial role in promoting social inclusion and development. It can effectively narrow the digital divide and enable all citizens to access critical services, including information, education, and healthcare (Wong & Ho, 2022). Furthermore, IT infrastructure can offer marginalised groups such as women, youth, and rural communities’ opportunities for participation, expression, and entrepreneurship platforms, thus empowering them. IT infrastructure investment is essential for a country's long-term growth and well-being (Xu, 2012). Proper IT infrastructure can create a positive feedback loop that promotes innovation, development, and social progress. However, investing in IT infrastructure requires meticulous planning, coordination, and governance to ensure alignment with the country's needs, priorities, and values (Chidama & Ononiwu, 2023; Alraja et al., 2016).
Although there has been a recent robust research direction towards examining the government’s social media management and implementation, there is an astonishing dearth of studies on e-governance from the citizens’ perspective (Medaglia & Yang, 2016; Chan et al., 2008). Accordingly, factors critical for the effectiveness of e-government services have not been probed sufficiently (Wirtz & Daiser, 2018). Morgeson et al. (2011) called for additional empirical studies to grasp a better understanding of the cognitive aspects of e-government users together with the technological capabilities and infrastructure and how these are influenced by knowledge creation on virtual platforms. In addition, no previous study has used a multi-theoretical framework to study the relationship at hand. The objective is to address the limitations mentioned in the literature by uncovering the collective perceived citizen’s satisfaction with social media in government mediated by knowledge creation (Maznorbalia & Awalluddin, 2021).
To accomplish this, the authors employ a multi-theoretical framework as the theoretical lens to understand how civilians’ satisfaction levels are influenced by social media platforms’ usage given the knowledge creation practices. We will refer to the Social Representation theory (SRT), the Technology Adoption Model (TAM) (Sulistyowati et al., 2020), and the Unified Theory of Adoption and Utilization of Technology (UTAU) (Maznorbalia & Awalluddin, 2021).
The authors chose these theoretical frameworks as they were the most cited in past research, and their assumptions and findings map variables under study in this research. Moreover, most of the past research is descriptive. It focuses on one aspect of focus at a certain point, diluting the complexity inherent in the government’s social media processes and missing a wide variety of aspects important to the phenomenon. Indeed, understanding citizen satisfaction with government social media and knowledge creation requires unpacking complex relationships and influences between various aspects highlighted in previous studies instead of adopting narrow IS-oriented perspectives (Maznorbalia & Awalluddin, 2021; Medgalia & Zheng, 2017).
To address this issue, this article investigates the characteristics of social media citizen users: ICT social media usage on government-managed social media platforms and the associated levels of perceived risk and value on his/her overall civilian satisfaction (Chidama & Ononiwu, 2023). The author defines government-managed social media as: “platforms where public agencies manage content provision, information, service, and citizen interaction strategies, without necessarily owning the platforms” (Zheng & Zheng, 2013). The knowledge creation on such platforms is accompanied by cross-opinion interaction, clarity of opinion expression, reasonableness of talk, and comprehension.
By concentrating on the citizen side of the government social media phenomenon, the authors aim to understand how citizens’ satisfaction levels are linked to knowledge creation processes on the government social media presence, regardless of the official governmental intentions and public messages, i.e., whether they explicitly aim at facilitating citizen delight or not (Charbaji et al., 2020). The research aims to provide scholars and policymakers with a better understanding of how cognitive and technological aspects are interrelated, with the long-term objective of improving citizen satisfaction derived from knowledge creation on social media (Allmann & Radu, 2023; Charbaji et al., 2020).
Our study presents several contributions. In particular, this article responds to the call of previous scholars to further delve into understanding the citizens’ intentions toward e-Participation and e-government applications (Xu, 2012). Furthermore, the article responds to past research endeavours that called for examining the influence of personalised user accounts and social media services on successful government performance. Finally, the article shall contribute towards past research by testing recent theoretical models (Aladwani & Dwivedi, 2018). In particular, the extent to which citizens interact with e-government platforms (vis-à-vis traditional media) tends to generate higher levels of citizen satisfaction under the influence of better knowledge creation.
Driven by these concerns and considerations, the authors systematically collected, read, and analysed all published and in-press articles about knowledge creation, social media usage and citizen-level satisfaction. This process involved using search terms such as social media, e-Government, Online discussion; knowledge creation, citizen, Social Representation Theory, Technology Adoption Model (TAM), Unified Theory of Adoption and Utilization of Technology (UTAU), e-Participation; Social Media Adoption Theory on different databases. As a double-check, references in the selected articles were also read. Used terms generated a variety of journal and book publications in various fields, including public administration (PA), politics, sociology, strategic management, Information Systems (IS), and e-government. Understanding the mechanism through which citizen satisfaction is influenced through government social media is complex, pooling research and knowledge from different disciplines of research and science.