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 182 Chinese 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.