“Global E-government and the Role of Trust: A Cross Country Analysis” has been accepted for publication in the International Journal of Electronic Government Research
Abstract
Past studies have explored exogenous and endogenous factors affecting a country’s level of e-government. However, to date, no empirical study has considered the impact of social factors, in particular social trust, on the level of e-government. Using cross-country data from 140 countries, this empirical study extends the research by examining the impact of trust on the level of e-government while controlling for economic, democratic, and institutional factors using a regression analysis. Further, this study employs a cluster analysis to identify emerging global patterns in e-government. The major empirical finding of this research shows that, after controlling for the level of economic development and other socio-economic factors, social trust as proxied by ethnic and religious diversity emerges as an important factor in determining the success of e-government.