E-government website evaluation with hybrid MCDM method in fuzzy environment

Abstract

E-government websites play an important role in the knowledge society not only by accelerating bureaucratic procedures but also enhancing citizen commitment to democracy. The acceptance of democracy (in its fullest sense) means considering the citizen as customer, making citizen satisfaction the ultimate target. Therefore, in addition to web design characteristics, e-service and e-democracy are taken into account in e-government website evaluation. Fuzzy logic is employed due to the properties of the evaluation process. Experts evaluated the criteria weights using fuzzy AHP, and the e-government websites from a group of selected EU countries using fuzzy VIKOR as a multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) technique, and a ranking was obtained. The unique properties of the paper can be listed as the formation of criteria using two kinds of fuzzy numbers, combining two MCDM methods, and applying this methodology to the problem of website evaluation for the first time. Copyright © 2012 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.