Wenjuan Li

Whereas the pivotal role of trust in the adoption of e-government was highlighted in prior research, attention was rarely paid thus far to investigate the role of post-use trust and its impact on citizens’ continuous-use intention of e-government. This study develops a comprehensive model, which consists of antecedents of post-use trust, perceived usefulness, satisfaction, and citizens’ continuous-use intention of e-government, to explain how interactional, government, and environmental factors influence citizens’ post-use trust as well as how post-use trust influences citizens’ continuous-use intention. Using data collected from a survey of 1867 citizen users living in one direct-controlled municipality and four high-population cities in China, this study tests the proposed concept model using structural equation modeling. The results show that trust in government, trust in the internet, service quality, and information quality have positive effects on citizens’ post-use trust. Factors that do not determine a user’s post-use trust are the perception of privacy and security, as well as system quality. Another finding is that citizens’ post-use trust does not directly influence their continuous intention to use e-government. Post-use trust will impact continuous-use intention through whether or not citizens find using e-government useful and satisfying.

This research particularly aims to investigate how trust and perceived risk influence citizens’ e-government adoption. The findings of the study reveal that citizens’ trust of the government (TOG) and trust of the internet (TOI) positively affect citizens’ e-government adoption (EGA); perceived risk (PR) is negatively associated with citizens’ EGA. Interestingly, this study also demonstrates the negative moderating effect of PR on the relationship between TOG and EGA, TOI and EGA. The results also indicate that performance expectancy (PE), effort expectancy (EE), social influence (SI), and facilitation conditions (FC) influence citizens’ EGA positively. Lastly, implications for practice and research are discussed.