Understanding trust-related factors affecting citizen adoption of e-government services

Purpose:Today,the use of e-government services is still at a low level in China.Based on the understanding that citizen trust is an important factor influencing e-government adoption,this research tries to develop a model of citizen trust in e-government in an effort to study the impacts of trust-related factors on citizen intentions to adopt e-government services.Design/methodology/approach:The data was collected from an online survey of 182Chinese users who had more than 3 years' online experiences of using government websites.Structural equation modeling analysis was used to validate the proposed model.Findings:Our survey shows that trust in e-government,perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use are critical factors that influence citizen intentions to use e-government services.The study findings also indicate that citizen trust in e-government is positively associated with trust in government,institution-based trust and perceived usefulness of e-government services.Research limitations:The survey sampled adults aged from 25 to 35 years old.Such a limited sample group cannot represent all of the population.So a larger sample involving more experienced online users will yield more useful results.Practical implications:The study results will help government agencies,especially the Chinese government agencies,find ways to improve the Chinese citizens' trust in e-government and promote their adoptions of e-government services.Originality/value:Previous researches have investigated separately the impacts of user evaluation of government websites and user trust in e-government on user intentions to engage in e-government.This study makes a theoretical contribution by integrating these two perspectives and building a model of citizen trust in e-government in understanding the impacts of trust-related factors on citizens' adoptions of e-government initiatives.