The role of trust in the prioritization of channel choices

Abstract

The role of trust is a significant element in the digital channel. While most studies have examined how the idea of trust has affected users' behaviors and developed integrative models of e-government, little attention has been paid to its critical role as a factor affecting citizens' preference toward certain service channels. There is no systematic investigation to compare different types of channel choices by differentiating between primary public service deliveries such as government information, application and transaction, and e-participation. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore how to perceive the role of trust as a possible determinant of service choice, in terms of different types of government services. Using survey data collected in Taiwan 2011, this study utilized a multinominal logistic analysis to examine the proposed models. The findings suggest that the different types of channel choices can be influenced by certain critical elements such as, political trust, trust in the Internet, and risk concern. © 2014 IFIP International Federation for Information Processing.