MEDIATING EFFECTS IN THE ADOPTION OF GAMIFIED E-GOVERNMENT SERVICES AMONG GENERATION Z

Abstract

Gamification has been used more and more in the digital transformation of public administration as a tactic to increase compliance, transparency, and citizen engagement. Points, prizes, and social components are used by gamified e-government services to encourage behavior change, especially in younger generations accustomed to digital engagement. Even though models like the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) are used in a large portion of the current research on digital adoption in the public sector, these frameworks frequently place an emphasis on peer influence and usability while under examining the institutional aspect of trust. However, it has been repeatedly noted that a key determinant of whether or not citizens embrace and continue to use digital services is their level of trust in public institutions and the government. In light of this, this study explores how trust functions as a mediating factor in Generation Z's adoption of gamified e-government initiatives. The study expands on UTAUT by presenting trust in institutions and the government as a possible mediator between the behavioral intention to use gamified public services and two important predictors: facilitating conditions and social influence. A survey of 119 young people in North Macedonia, where e-government initiatives are being pushed as instruments for fiscal accountability and transparency, was used to gather data. Respondents, who are primarily from Generation Z, are a perfect group to research how digital innovations are adopted because of their experience with gamified environments and their changing perceptions of institutional trust. Both direct and indirect effects were tested using regression-based mediation analysis, which was backed by 5,000 bootstrap resamples. The findings offer compelling evidence that behavioral intention is significantly predicted by social influence and favorable circumstances. Peer approval and the presence of dependable infrastructure in particular were found to be strong predictors of sustained use of gamified services. Furthermore, trust was also significantly predicted by facilitating conditions, indicating that institutional competence and system reliability perceptions serve as the cornerstones for fostering trust in open digital platforms. Conversely, trust was not significantly impacted by social influence, suggesting that increased institutional confidence is not solely a result of peer approval. The results showed that trust did not significantly mediate the relationship between behavioral intention and either facilitating conditions or social influence when mediation was evaluated.