While technology adoption is a major stream of research in information systems, there is limited research into the antecedents and consequences of mandatory adoption of technologies in society. In this paper, we develop a mandatory adoption model in the context of e-government. We build on the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology UTAUT and present antecedents and one consequence of the key predictors in UTAUT, namely performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence and facilitating conditions. Using a marketing theory for launching technology products, we hypothesize that various factors will influence the technology adoption beliefs through four stages, i.e.,

1. market preparation stage - awareness
2. targeting stage - compatibility and self-efficacy
3. positioning stage - flexibility and avoidance of personal interaction and
4. execution stage - trust, convenience and assistance.

We test our model in a survey of 1,179 Hong Kong citizens before and after they were issued a mandatory smart card to access e-government services. In addition to the UTAUT variables predicting citizen satisfaction with the smart card, we found that the various factors tied to the different stages of the launch of the technology predicted the key UTAUT variables. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications for governments implementing technologies that must be mandatorily used by citizens.