INCREASING E-TRUST: A SOLUTION TO MINIMIZE RISK IN E-GOVERNMENT ADOPTION

In the last decade, governments around the world have been working to capture the vast potential of the Internet to improve government processes. However, the success of these efforts depends, to a great extent, on how well the targeted users for such services, citizens in general, make use of them. Even e-government brings a certain level of transparency and offers good scope for innovative ways of servicing, some people remain suspicious of IT use in relation with government. For this reason, the purpose of the presented study was to identify what factors could affect the citizens’ trust in e government services. The study was conducted by surveying 793 citizens from all Romanian regions. The findings indicate that citizen’s higher perception of technological and organisational trustworthiness, the quality and usefulness of e government services, the Internet experience and propensity to trust, directly enhanced the trust in e-government. Opposite, age and privacy concerns have a negative influence over trust.