Measuring the service quality of governmental sites: Development and validation of the e-Government service quality (EGSQUAL) scale

• Reports the development of the Electronic Government Service Quality EGSQUAL scale. • The 21 items, multidimensional scale was established using academics and experts input. • Validated on two samples involving 545 and 1015 Canadian citizens. • Nomological validity shown in a follow-up study using the usa.gov and ny.gov sites. • Quality captured by seven latent factors including quality of assistance and website functionality. The quality of government websites and electronic services is an important predictor of their effective use by citizens. It is also a major concern of public managers. This article advances a new multi-dimensional scale of Electronic Government Service Quality (EGSQUAL), a 21-item scale that measures users’ perceptions about the service quality of government websites. The scale was first developed using experts’ input and validated on two samples comprising 545 and 1015 Canadian citizens. Next, the scale’s nomological validity was assessed in a study involving 351 users of the www.usa.gov and www.ny.gov websites. The results show that the EGSQUAL scale has very good psychometric properties and that the latent multi-dimensional construct of electronic government service quality can be reliably captured by seven dimensions: (1) interactivity & personalization , (2) information quality , (3) quality of assistance , (4) ease of use, (5) website functionality (6) privacy & security , and (7) aesthetics . The theoretical and managerial implications of the developed scale are discussed.