Citizen Adoption of Digital Government Services in Botswana: A UTAUT3-Informed Study of Perceptions and Implementation Challenges

Purpose – This study examines factors associated with citizens’ behavioural intention to adopt digital government services in Botswana using a UTAUT3-informed framework incorporating demographic characteristics and implementation challenges.Design/methodology/approach – Cross-sectional questionnaire data were collected from 411 citizens in Botswana. Descriptive statistics and hierarchical multiple linear regression were used for the primary analyses. PLUM ordinal-logistic regression was conducted as a sensitivity analysis of the final behavioural-intention model.Findings – Personal innovativeness, price value and social influence were positively associated with behavioural intention. Age showed a significant exploratory association, whereas gender and education were not significant in the final model. Education was, however, positively associated with all eight UTAUT3-related perception indicators in separate demographic models. Adding implementation challenges did not significantly increase the explained variance in behavioural intention. Most challenges were associated with technology perceptions rather than directly with behavioural intention, although internet instability retained a small negative association with intention.Research limitations/implications – The cross-sectional design and use of single global perceptual indicators limit causal and measurement-model interpretations. The findings should therefore be interpreted as exploratory associations.Practical implications – Digital-government initiatives should strengthen citizens’ readiness to engage with new technologies, perceived service value and supportive social environments while addressing infrastructure reliability and implementation barriers.Originality/value – The study extends UTAUT3-informed digital-government research by showing how citizen perceptions, demographic characteristics and implementation conditions jointly relate to adoption in Botswana.