Abstract:

Due to the benefits of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), Governments are providing citizens with public e-services. Similarly to other online transactions, e-government initiatives can benefit both citizens and Public Administration. Nevertheless, it is important to understand the adoption of public e-services by citizens in order to guarantee success in egovernment initiatives implementation. Since these services are technology driven, technology
adoption models have been used to explain this adoption. On the other hand, trust has been revealed as a key variable in risky and uncertain scenarios like online transactions. Bearing these
considerations in mind, this work analyses how TAM (Technology Adoption Model) variables and
trust are affecting the process of public e-services adoption. Specifically, we propose a framework in which trust is adapted to the already existing TAM hypotheses as a complementary variable to
explain adoption. Based on the data provided by citizens’ responses about the public e-services of a Spanish public agency, the research hypotheses are tested using structural equation modelling. Results support most of the proposed hypotheses and confirm the relevance of trust and its influence on TAM variables on this context of analysis. Finally, the main implications derived from these results as well as several managerial implications of our study are widely discussed.