Abdallah Alsaad, Abdelbaset Alkhawaldeh, Hamzah Elrehail, Rami Almomani
Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy, Vol. ahead-of-print, No. ahead-of-print, pp.-
The association between e-government and trust in government has been extensively examined, even though empirical works have returned conflicting conclusions about this association. This study aims to revisit the relationship between e-government and trust in government using macrolevel data from Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member countries. It also addresses whether or not e-government should contribute to the quality of governance to improve trust in government.
Archival data from 36 OECD members over five years (2012–2015) were used to achieve the study objectives.
Results indicate that e-government does not directly affect trust in government, although there is an indirect association.
This implies that e-government systems will not significantly impact trust in government unless they contribute to the quality of governance that offers a basis for granting trust in government. Accordingly, value creation, including trust, should be considered during the design of e-government systems to achieve the desired outcomes.