1 Introduction

Customer satisfaction is a key construct in the marketing literature (Dash et al., 2021; Yi & Nataraajan, 2018; Zhao et al., 2020). The previous literature mentions that customer satisfaction is a combined response after a person obtains or consumes a product or service in a certain period (Dash et al., 2021; Giese & Cote, 2000; Oliver, 2010). Additionally, the measures of customer satisfaction are context related, meaning that the measurement is highly dependent on the product or service consumed (Dash et al., 2021; McColl-Kennedy & Schneider, 2000). Customer satisfaction has been studied in different settings, including public services (Rhee & Rha, 2009; Zhang et al., 2022), which is in the context of marketing (Butler & Collins, 1995; Laing, 2003).

Research on marketing concepts, particularly customer satisfaction, are potentially applied when public service satisfaction is decreasing (Bouzas-Lorenzo, 2010; Wu, 2021). Traditionally, before the rise of new public management, the discussion of marketing elements in public services was very limited (Caruana et al., 1998; Walsh, 1994). As managerialism has grown in recent years, marketing is considered important for public services, and some marketing practices have been applied to the public sector (Bouzas-Lorenzo, 2010; Caruana et al., 1998; Walsh, 1994). Recently, academics and practitioners have applied marketing concepts to public sector organizations (Arca et al., 2017; Cervera et al., 2001; Kotler & Lee, 2007a). Compared to the public sector, marketing concept such as customer satisfaction is more often viewed as being related to the private sector (Eid et al., 2019; Kotler & Lee, 2007b). However, public sector organizations seeking excellent performance need to achieve customer satisfaction with their services (Eid et al., 2019; Kim, 2020). Public services that succeed in fulfilling customers’ wants and needs will have a lower budget allocation for promotion because satisfied customers may become “evangelists” for such service (Cervera et al., 2001; Kotler & Lee, 2007a). In addition, customer satisfaction benefits public services regarding future support for funding needs, enhancing operational efficiencies, and improving performance evaluations (Kotler & Lee, 2007a; Walker et al., 2011).

Due to the rapid development of information and communication technology infrastructures and the diffusion of internet connectivity, organizations have introduced a large number of technology-based services for their customers, including electronic services provided by public sector organizations (Hung et al., 2020; Khan et al., 2021; Kumar et al., 2020). While many scholars in recent years have studied customer satisfaction with electronic public services, the numbers of systematic literature review are still limited. Addressing the gap, therefore, it is convincing to critically assess the extent of literature and to clarify what we already know and what we need to know regarding the determinants of customer satisfaction with electronic public services. Through systematic literature review, this study aims to offer a comprehensive analysis of the current state literature regarding customer satisfaction with electronic public services. Additionally, this paper potentially generates deeper researchable topics for further investigation.

2 Research method

Systematic literature review aims to comprehensively identify, assess, and synthesize all relevant studies that satisfy pre-established criteria based on an explicit method to answer particular questions (Antman et al., 1992; Klassen et al., 1998). SLR study should follow a replicable, scientific and transparent process, and it should also minimize bias in the coverage of the field (Cook et al., 1997; Nightingale, 2009). This study applied the approach of conducting an SLR suggested by Tranfield et al. (2003). To present a comprehensive report on the extant literature, the following four research questions were addressed:

  1. 1)

    What similarities and differences are evident in the literature on customer satisfaction with electronic public services over time and across regions, research methods, and types of electronic public services?

  2. 2)

    What theories/concepts/models are adopted by studies on customer satisfaction with electronic public services?

  3. 3)

    What are the antecedents and consequences of customer satisfaction with electronic public services?

  4. 4)

    What knowledge gaps are evident within the extant literature on customer satisfaction with electronic public services?

2.1 Initial search

Scopus databases were used to ensure extensive coverage of the social scientific journals (Hati et al., 2021). We selected Scopus because in the field of social science, its database is better in terms of journal coverage and the number of documents retrieved (Aksnes & Sivertsen, 2019; Hati et al., 2021). The authors also searched for publications from Google Scholar using Search Direct in Publish or Perish, excluding citations and patents. Google Scholar is known for its rich repository of journals (Zarezadeh et al., 2022). The time span for the article search was until July 9, 2022.

The keywords used for data collection were “satisfaction”, “e-government”, “government website”, “government app”, “government e-service” “electronic public service”, “public e-service”, “public service website”, and “public service app”. We used several combinations of these keywords, including (1) satisfaction and e-government, (2) satisfaction and “government website”, (3) satisfaction and “government app”, (4) satisfaction and “government e-service”, (5) satisfaction and “online government” (6) satisfaction and “electronic public service”, (7) satisfaction and “public e-service”, (8) satisfaction and “public service website”, (9) satisfaction and “public service app”, and (10) satisfaction and “online public service”. The initial search resulted in a total of 5741 papers (see Table 1).

Table 1 Initial search results
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2.2 Filtering

Since many papers appeared in more than one category, eliminating these duplications left us with 4474 documents. Among these were journal articles (1752), conference papers (996), book chapters (256), reviews (54), notes (2), conference reviews (10), books (164), short surveys (1), and miscellaneous such as preprints, university repository, and undefined (1239). All the non-article papers were excluded, resulting in 1752 papers left. We only included journal articles, as these have more credibility than other forms of content due to the peer review process. According to (Hati et al., 2021), the peer review process for journal articles submitted by scholars and the articles are assessed by experts in the field before publication. We limited the papers to peer reviewed journal articles only, leaving us with 1641 papers. The results were then further limited to English language articles only, resulting in 1589 documents. We follow the review protocol which includes formulating preliminary inclusion and exclusion search criteria to identify relevant studies and reading, analysing and critically evaluating each paper (Budgen & Brereton, 2006; Marikyan et al., 2019). Finally, based on exclusion criteria in Table 2, we screened for papers that specifically discussed antecedents and outcomes of electronic public service recipients’ satisfaction (e.g., client satisfaction, citizen satisfaction, or customer satisfaction) in depth, which generated 214 documents. The articles that did not discuss public service recipients’ satisfaction with electronic public service (e.g., e-government service or public e-service) or discussed satisfaction in different contexts were eliminated; for example, the public service employee satisfaction with e-government (Janita & Miranda, 2018).

Table 2 Exclusion criteria
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Each article identified in the literature search was given an initial classification according to the type of electronic public service mentioned in the text (e.g., general, tax, health). Later, each article was read in detail for further verification and more specific classification of themes/categories within each electronic public service. After we read through the abstracts and content of the articles, we had a final sample of 129 articles.

Our systematic literature review method is shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1
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Literature review process

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3 Analysis

This stage features the year of publication of the papers, the countries where the study was conducted, the types of electronic public services, the research methods employed, theories, and the antecedents and consequences of customer satisfaction with electronic public services (Ain et al., 2019; Hoehle et al., 2012).

3.1 General features of the literature

Articles on topics related to antecedents and/or outcomes of customer satisfaction with electronic public service (e-government service) published in Scopus and Google Scholar databases have appeared since 2005 and that the number of articles published has fluctuated, with 2021 having the highest number, i.e., 27 articles (See Fig. 2).

Fig. 2
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Number of academic articles on electronic public service satisfaction by year

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Meanwhile, research on antecedents/outcomes of customer satisfaction with electronic public services is shown by region in Fig. 3. This figure shows that previous studies were majorly conducted in Middle Eastern and Asian countries. In addition, out of 129 studies, three studies conducted cross-country research.

Fig. 3
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Number of studies by country

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While most studies on customer satisfaction with electronic public services mainly focus on e-government services, some studies have been conducted on specific services such as taxation (Akram et al., 2019), education (Alkraiji & Ameen, 2021), social media (Porumbescu, 2016), contact tracing app (Al-Soni & Abu-Shanab, 2021), health (Irani et al., 2014), labour (Noor et al., 2011b), police (Wang & Teo, 2020), and smartcard (Venkatesh et al., 2012).

Figure 4 shows the types of electronic public services platform in the 129 studies. It shows that public service website is the type of service that has often been investigated in previous studies. Meanwhile, little research focuses on customer satisfaction with other platforms such as government mobile applications and social media.

Fig. 4
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Types of electronic public service platforms

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3.2 Research methods and theories/Concepts employed

Table 3 features the research methods and theories/concepts applied in the 129 reviewed articles. Research methods cover the research approach, data collection method, sample size for analysis, data analysis technique, and sampling technique. The dominant approach used in research on customer satisfaction with electronic public services was quantitative, comprising 126 articles. The most widely used method to collect the data in these quantitative research articles was survey. Two studies used mixed methods in which data were obtained through quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews The reviewed articles used different data analysis techniques. Structural equation modelling (SEM) or partial least square structural modelling (PLS-SEM) was the most widely used technique, with the total of 76 studies. Different regression techniques were also frequently used in the reviewed articles, with the total of 39 studies. The reviewed articles also applied other sampling techniques and sample sizes for analysis, as detailed in Table 3. As indicated in Table 3, 27 articles did not clearly mention which sampling technique was used, but the random and convenient sampling techniques were the most widely used. In 79 out of 129 reviewed articles, the sample size for analysis were between 200 and 1000 respondents.

Table 3 Research methods and theories/Concepts in the reviewed articles
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Table 3 informs theories, models and concepts mentioned in the 129 reviewed articles. Several reviewed articles integrate more than one theory, model, and concept to develop a research framework or research hypothesis. The theories, models, and concepts appeared in more than one article are shown in Fig. 5. Besides the satisfaction concept explained in 54 papers, the information system (IS) success model (DeLone & McLean, 1992, 2003) is the most commonly used theory in the reviewed articles, found in 38 papers. The concept of service quality is also frequently mentioned in the reviewed articles, found in 24 papers. Agency theory, channel choice, cultural theories, empowerment theory, engagement, self-determination theory, and involvement are among the theories and concepts found in the reviewed articles.

Fig. 5
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Theory/concept applied in more than one reviewed article

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4 Antecedents of Customer Satisfaction with Electronic Public Services

Previous studies on customer satisfaction with electronic public services identify 126 potential antecedents of customer satisfaction with electronic public services, which we categorized into four groups to facilitate analysis and comparison: psychological, technological, social, and behavioural factors (Yan et al., 2021). The grouping of antecedents is detailed in Table 4. In this present study, we consider that there are 36 psychological factors (i.e., trust, awareness), 69 technological factors (i.e., information quality, service quality, system quality, usability), 15 social factors (i.e., virtual community engagement), and 6 behavioural factors (i.e., use). These numbers show that the dominant antecedents of customer satisfaction with electronic public services are technological and psychological factors, while social and behavioural factors are less frequently mentioned.

Table 4 The antecedents of customer satisfaction with electronic public services
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The following section informs some of the antecedents that have often been investigated. Due to the numbers of antecedents mentioned in previous studies, we prioritize those being discussed most frequently.

4.1 Antecedents – psychological factors

The identified psychological factors are experiences and cognitive processes at the individual level, including thoughts, feelings and beliefs that influence customer behaviour (Upton, 2013; Yan et al., 2021). The most commonly used psychological factors in previous research are trust and awareness.

4.1.1 Trust

Trust is a crucial concept in the marketing literature because it directly affects the close relationship between service providers and customers (Alkraiji, 2020a; Sirdeshmukh et al., 2002). It particularly applies in electronic service situations, where the absence of face-to-face interaction can lead to uncertainty and risk (Al-Hujran et al., 2015; Alkraiji, 2020a; Warkentin et al., 2002). In the context of electronic public services, trust is a widely studied antecedent of customer satisfaction (Alkraiji, 2020a). Customer trust, which is the belief that electronic public services will act responsibly when customers visit or make transactions on a service website (Teo et al., 2008; Weerakkody et al., 2016), is important. Trust refers to the belief that the trustee will act cooperatively to meet the trustor’s expectations without exploiting the trustor’s weaknesses (Chan et al., 2010; Pavlou & Fygenson, 2006). Customer trust can be defined as a set of beliefs held by electronic service consumers regarding specific characteristics of electronic service providers and the possible behaviour of electronic service providers in the future (Alawneh et al., 2013; Coulter & Coulter, 2002). Trust in electronic public services means that customers trust the competence of service providers to securely provide electronic public services (Carter & Bélanger, 2005; Idoughi & Abdelhakim, 2018).

The previous literature states that trust positively impacts customer satisfaction with electronic public services (Alawneh et al., 2013; Alkraiji, 2020a; Al-ma'Aitah, 2019; Idoughi & Abdelhakim, 2018; Kumar et al., 2020; Weerakkody et al., 2016). Research on customer satisfaction with electronic public services also examines trust as a mediating variable that links antecedents to customer satisfaction (Alkraiji, 2020a; Al-ma'Aitah, 2019; Idoughi & Abdelhakim, 2018; Weerakkody et al., 2016). Most studies indicate a significant effect of trust on customer satisfaction. Nonetheless, in other studies, the effect is not significant (Alawneh et al., 2013; Kumar et al., 2020).

4.1.2 Awareness

Awareness is an important factor that leads customers to adopt and use electronic public services (Alawneh et al., 2013). Customers need to know and be aware of the benefits of electronic public services; otherwise, customers will be sceptical to use such services (Alawneh et al., 2013). Customers need to be aware of the availability of electronic public services that satisfy their needs (Anwar et al., 2016). If customers do not have information about the availability of electronic public services, they will not use them, even if such services are of value to them (Anwar et al., 2016; Verdegem & Verleye, 2009). The amount of information that customers have about the available electronic public services and their benefits is essential for customers to adopt them (Alawneh et al., 2013; Pikkarainen et al., 2004). Customer awareness of electronic public services can be defined as customer perceptions of the benefits and information of available electronic services, particularly their level of awareness. (Alawneh et al., 2013; Khan et al., 2012). Previous studies find evidence of the positive effect of awareness of electronic public services on customer satisfaction (Abudaqa et al., 2019; Alawneh et al., 2013; Anwar et al., 2016; Idoughi & Abdelhakim, 2018).

4.2 Antecedents – technological factors

Perceptions, attitudes and interactions between humans and technology are the focus of the technological factors (Yan et al., 2021). The dominant technological factors in research on customer satisfaction with electronic public services are information quality, service quality, system quality, and usefulness.

4.2.1 Information quality

Information quality is a customer’s assessment of the performance of an information system in providing information based on the customer’s experience using the system (Veeramootoo et al., 2018). Information quality is an objective and subjective perspective of the information consumed by customers (Veeramootoo et al., 2018). Measures of information include relevance, reliability, timeliness, clarity, accuracy, and currency (Gemoets et al., 2011). Information quality can be defined as an electronic public service system’s ability to provide customers with new, accurate, clear, and easy-to-understand information (Al Athmay et al., 2016). Previous studies have shown the effect of information quality on customer satisfaction with electronic public services (Al Athmay et al., 2016; Alkraiji, 2020b; Gemoets et al., 2011; Veeramootoo et al., 2018; Weerakkody et al., 2016). However, several studies have found that there is no significant effect of information quality on customer satisfaction with electronic public services (Alkraiji, 2020b; Sorongan & Hidayati, 2020; Veeramootoo et al., 2018).

4.2.2 Service quality

Service quality is a determinant of customer satisfaction in the literature on marketing and consumer behaviour (Veeramootoo et al., 2018). Service quality can be defined as the extent to which the services provided satisfy customer needs and expectations (Al-ma'Aitah, 2019; Li & Shang, 2020), and it is an assessment of the overall service over a long period (Chan et al., 2020). Service quality is customers’ perception of the quality of services provided through public service websites (Alawneh et al., 2013). Previous studies have mentioned the effect of service quality on customer satisfaction with electronic public services (Alawneh et al., 2013; Al-ma'Aitah, 2019; Chan et al., 2020; Li & Shang, 2020; Obaid & Ahmad, 2021; Sorongan & Hidayati, 2020; Veeramootoo et al., 2018).

4.2.3 System quality

System quality is the ability of an electronic public service system to provide customers with accurate, reliable, relevant, and easy-to-understand information (Al Athmay et al., 2016). It also includes usability, availability, and adaptability (DeLone & McLean, 2003; Veeramootoo et al., 2018). System quality is perceived through customers’ interaction with the system when completing their tasks (Weerakkody et al., 2016). The system quality of electronic public services can increase customers’ confidence in using such services (Gemoets et al., 2011). System quality is measured by ease of use, user friendliness, ease of learning, useful features and functions, response time, the convenience of on-site and remote access, and system accuracy (Gemoets et al., 2011), as well as security during and after use (Xiong et al., 2022). Previous studies have shown that there was effect of system quality on customer satisfaction with electronic public services (Al Athmay et al., 2016; Alkraiji, 2020b; Gemoets et al., 2011; Obaid & Ahmad, 2021; Sorongan & Hidayati, 2020; Veeramootoo et al., 2018; Weerakkody et al., 2016; Xiong et al., 2022). However, one reviewed article found no significant effect of system quality on customer satisfaction with electronic public services (Noor et al., 2011a).

4.2.4 Usefulness

Usefulness (or perceived usefulness) is the extent to which individuals believe that using technology will improve performance in completing their tasks (Alkraiji, 2020a; Davis, 1989; Sachan et al., 2018). The usefulness of electronic public services in terms of costs and benefits is an essential consideration for customers (Idoughi & Abdelhakim, 2018). In general, the usefulness of service is measured by the extent to which the service operates and satisfies customer needs (Abudaqa et al., 2019). Previous studies find supporting evidence on the effect of usefulness on customer satisfaction with electronic public services (Abudaqa et al., 2019; Alkraiji, 2020a, b; Idoughi & Abdelhakim, 2018; Mensah & Luo, 2021; Sachan et al., 2018).

4.3 Antecedents – social factors

Social factors are related to interpersonal relationships and social structures and processes that impact an individual (Upton, 2013; Yan et al., 2021). In the previous literature, social factors that are antecedents of customer satisfaction with electronic public services include virtual community engagement and social influence.

4.3.1 Virtual community engagement

One previous study discussed virtual community engagement as a social factor that affects customer satisfaction with electronic public services (Yap et al., 2020). Due to its interactive capability, virtual community engagement drives citizens’ satisfaction, which in turn, affects their continuous and extended use intentions (Yap et al., 2020). Virtual communities can be defined as word-of-mouth networks consisting of different individuals who share information with each other (Yap et al., 2020). The study found that virtual community engagement relates positively with citizen satisfaction.

4.3.2 Social influence

Social influence is the level at which individuals feel that the people who are important to them believe that they must use an electronic public service system (Al Athmay et al., 2016; Islam et al., 2021). Social influence shows interpersonal relationships in the use of technology (Al Athmay et al., 2016; Islam et al., 2021). Social influence is an important aspect of technological assessment that affects customer satisfaction with electronic public services (Al Athmay et al., 2016; Islam et al., 2021). Previous studies have discussed how customers are satisfied with electronic public services (Al Athmay et al., 2016; Islam et al., 2021).

4.4 Antecedents – behavioural factors

Behavioural factors are expressed in behaviour or involved behaviour (Yan et al., 2021). Previous studies on customer satisfaction with electronic public services mentioned use as a behavioural factor.

4.4.1 Use

One behavioural factor that affects customer satisfaction with electronic public services is use. Use is the stage where the customer has the intention to use services and gain access to available electronic public services (Verdegem & Verleye, 2009). Customer satisfaction can be measured during or after use (Verdegem & Verleye, 2009). The use of electronic services helps customers meet their information needs, and using services more frequently will lead to increased customer satisfaction (Venkatesh et al., 2012). Previous studies mentioned the effect of service use by customers on customer satisfaction with electronic public services (Bin Musa et al., 2019; Venkatesh et al., 2012, 2016).

5 Role of mediators and moderators

Table 3 shows the 15 constructs with mediating roles examined in the reviewed articles. Most importantly, intention to use also functions as an antecedent of different factors. The 15 constructs are adoption of e-government service, continuous use intention, overall satisfaction with government, intention to use, confidence in agency, e-government system usage, continuance intention, involvement, e-government usage, retention, loyalty, usage, e-participants' development, and habit. Unfortunately, in the reviewed articles, the discussion regarding mediators is rare to be found.

Referring to Table 3, there are five moderating constructs namely access to information and communication technology (ICT) (Abdulkareem & Ramli, 2021a, 2021b), perceived risk (Akram et al., 2019), different government Facebook page (Valaei & Baroto, 2017), as well as gender and age (Rey-Moreno et al., 2018). However, the discussion in the reviewed article regarding moderators falls to be exhaustive.

6 Consequences of customer satisfaction

Table 5 shows 40 consequences of customer satisfaction with electronic public services which were examined by 72 articles out of the 129 reviewed articles. We conclude that customer satisfaction can affect the subsequent use of electronic public services. Of these 40 constructs, continuance intention, intention to use, and trust are frequently examined. Marketing-related constructs such as word of mouth and image are not widely discussed in the reviewed articles. Future research should consider studying more marketing constructs as consequences of customer satisfaction with electronic public services.

Table 5 Consequences of customer satisfaction with electronic public service
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7 Research gaps and future research agenda

The SLR on the antecedents and consequences of customer satisfaction with electronic public services indicates that the previous literature has research gaps in explaining the antecedents, consequences, mediators, and moderators of customer satisfaction. This study offers the abovementioned topics for recommendations for further research, especially on the antecedents of customer satisfaction with electronic public services.

7.1 Framework development

Table 3 presents previous studies on customer satisfaction with electronic public services and identifies further research directions to enhance the literature. Three of the antecedents of customer satisfaction, system quality, service quality, and information quality, were studied by many researchers in more than 25 articles. Meanwhile, other antecedents were mentioned in less than 5 articles. The reason is that the information system success model is often used in previous studies. The relationship between customer satisfaction and system quality, service quality, and information quality are part of the information system success model (DeLone & McLean, 1992, 2003). For further research, this study recommends other researchers to investigate the effect of customer satisfaction with electronic public services of other antecedents that have rarely been examined.

7.1.1 Antecedents of customer satisfaction

Based on the SLR, the following are proposed antecedents for further research regarding psychological, technological, social, and behavioural factors.

Psychological Factors

Trust is a dominant psychological factor in research on customer satisfaction with electronic public services. However, previous studies (Alawneh et al., 2013; Kumar et al., 2020) claimed that there is no significant effect of trust on customer satisfaction with electronic public services. Therefore, this study recommends further investigation to clarify the claims. Psychological factors that were rarely discussed in previous studies need to be further examined, such as service value, attitude, and expectations. In addition, technological developments in the field of electronic public services, such as services using conversational agents and social media, need to be examined to determine whether the enjoyment of using these services affects customer satisfaction.

Technological factors

As indicated in Table 4, technological factors were the most frequently examined in the reviewed articles, with a total of 69 constructs. Out of the 69 constructs, there are two under researched constructs, accuracy and full online service. Customers accessing an electronic public service might have reduced satisfaction if the service is not accurate and/or the online service is not complete. This study recommends conducting more research on electronic public service accuracy and full online service, as well as their influence on customer satisfaction with electronic public services.

Social factors

Table 4 indicates that social influence is one of the factors influencing customer satisfaction with electronic public services. 4 out of 129 reviewed articles examined the effect of social influence, but the discussion was limited. This research recommends studying how social influence affects specific groups of customers, such as elderly customers. It is assumed that elderly customers are not fond of using electronic services. The social influences of the same age groups in different settings, such as religious and family gatherings, are expected to encourage elderly customers to use more electronic public services.

In previous studies, the discussion about the influence of social factors on customer satisfaction with electronic public services is still limited. However, with the increasing use of social media as part of electronic public services, this study recommends further research that examines whether relationships with public service providers through social media do affect customer satisfaction.

Behavioural factors

Previous studies that discuss behavioural factors that affect customer satisfaction with electronic public services are still limited. This study recommends further research that examines whether behavioural factors, such as the purpose and frequency of use, influence customer satisfaction with electronic public services. The purpose of using electronic public services can be divided into obtaining information and making transactions to obtain certain documents. Meanwhile, the frequency of use can be differentiated based on electronic public services that are routinely used, services that can be used at any time based on need, services that are required once a year, such as tax payments, and services that are rarely used.

8 Conclusion, limitations and further research

This paper provides a comprehensive analysis for the topic of customer satisfaction with electronic public services through a systematic literature review of 129 articles based on previous studies. This paper classified the articles based on the year of publication, the country in which the study was conducted, theories and models, research methods, the types of electronic public services, and the factors (antecedents, mediators, consequences) used in the study. After conducting the evaluation, a discussion of customer satisfaction with electronic public services is presented, as well as recommendations for further research.

This systematic literature review has several limitations. First, the articles were collected from only two databases, Scopus and Google Scholar (using Publish or Perish software). Nonetheless, research on customer satisfaction with electronic public services may also be published in other outlets. Second, articles were searched using specific keywords related to customer satisfaction with e-government service, electronic public services, and public e-service, while research on customer satisfaction may use other keywords. Third, the articles selected were published only in journals, while research on customer satisfaction with electronic public services may be in the form of a paper presented at a conference or a chapter in a book. Nevertheless, we hope that the SLR and related research agenda documented in this paper provide a useful overview of the current state of the literature and directions for future research.

A further increase in research related to customer satisfaction with electronic public services with different methods, theories, antecedents, consequences, mediators, and moderators based on the previous literature could be expected with the following recommendations:

  • Methods

    Future research could adopt data collection methods using big data technologies and analytics, which are not widely used in public sector marketing research. Such methods mine and analyse different types of data created by public service customers. For example, research could collect data on public sentiments taken from social media posts indicating customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction with electronic public services.

  • Theories

    Future research could apply different theories explaining customer satisfaction with digital public services, such as the service dominant logic, social exchange theory, Kano model, emotional support, sociobiological theory, market signal theory, multi-attribute theory, and other potential theories that have been examined in the e-commerce setting. Applying theories from e-commerce research is expected to enrich future e-government research.

  • Antecedents

    Future research could examine different antecedents of customer satisfaction with digital services in public sector marketing, such as perceived enjoyment, the need for human interaction, online reviews, and value co-creation behaviours. These antecedents have been examined in the e-commerce setting. It is assumed that the same antecedents might influence customer satisfaction with digital public services.

  • Consequences

    The consequences of customer satisfaction with digital services, such as complaints and word of mouth, could be further discussed in future public sector marketing research. Additionally, different consequences of customer satisfaction based on e-commerce research, such as intention to co-create value with service provider, commitment, and involvement, could be examined in the e-government setting.

  • Mediators

    Antecedents with mediating roles in influencing customer satisfaction with digital services in the previous literature, such as perceived value (emotional value, economic value, social value, and service value), could be further examined in future public sector marketing research. In addition, potential mediators examined in the e-commerce setting could be investigated, such as online convenience, accuracy, credibility, and communication competence.

  • Moderators

Potential moderators interacting with the antecedents of digital consumer satisfaction could be examined in future public marketing research, such as frequency of usage, service types, and social media usage. These moderators are expected to interact with antecedents and influence customer satisfaction. For example, the routine usage of digital public services might have a different effect on customer satisfaction than non-routine usage. Customers using different types of electronic public services might have different experiences, which in turn will affect their satisfaction. Additionally, different levels of social media usage might affect customer satisfaction, such that customers who use social media more frequently might have more information on e-government services, which in turn will affect their satisfaction.