The critical factors influencing citizens' trust in e-government adoption: citizens' aspects perspective

Abstract

Despite the importance of citizens’ trust toward the successful adoption of e-government, the majority of the extant research focuses only on two dimensions to investigate the role of citizens’ trust in e-government which are, trust in technology and trust in government. Hence, there is an absence of research into the multi-dimensional nature of trust and in particular how demographic aspects such as citizens’ personality, culture, gender, experience, education level, beliefs and value systems influence citizens’ trust in e-government. This research particularly aims to investigate and analyse the critical factors influencing citizens' trust in e-government from different aspects including: technology, government agency, risk and citizens' perspective. To achieve this aim, this research undertook a comprehensive review of the e-government and trust literatures, followed by a systematic review of relevant academic articles to identify the factors influencing trust in e-government. The existing literature considered technical factors, government agencies, risk and citizens' aspects. Thereby, a conceptual framework was developed by extending the updated DeLone and McLean’ IS Success Model. To validate the framework, empirical research was preformed, followed by the distribution of a questionnaire to participants who have a past experience in using e-government services, within three ministries in Saudi Arabia. Of 1076 completed survey responses received, 912 were considered valid to use in this study. This study has applied structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) to test the proposed research framework using SmartPLS 3.0. The final developed framework was then refined and presented along with the findings regarding the significant factors influencing citizens’ trust in e-government. The findings of study revealed that while technical factors and disposition to trust have a positive influence on trust in e-government, factors related to government agencies and risk have negative impacts on citizens' trust. With regard to the citizens' aspects, the findings reveal that the female respondents demonstrate a more positive evaluation of online services as compared to the male respondents, with the female group reporting more significant and positive influences of the technical aspects on trust in e-government as compared to the male group. Interestingly, this study found that old people display greater trust in e-government as compared to levels of trust reported by younger people. The findings also highlight that internet experience has a positive influence on citizens' trust, as increased levels of Internet experience increased the level of trust in e-government. Finally, the study found non-significant support of the influence of education level in terms of trust in e-government. Lastly, the strategies that governments use to build and develop citizens' trust were identified based on the findings of the study. The originality of this study is that it tries to provide new insights on the subject of citizens’ trust in e-government in Saudi Arabia, as limited studies investigate and analyse how citizens’ differences in gender, age, education level and internet experience can influence their trust in e-government. This study attempts to provide a validated conceptual framework that integrates different antecedents of trust in e-government. Also, the impact of additional factors such as citizens’ satisfaction, intention to continue use e-government and the moderating effect of different demographic factors (gender, age, education and internet experience) are considered in this research, complementing and enhancing the existing literature on trust in e-government. Also, this research offers several implications to practitioners (decision maker) and stakeholders who are involved in e-government initiatives by providing new insights into e-government adoption from a citizens’ perspective.