Studying eGovernment Trust in Developing Nations: A Case of University and Colleges Admissions and Services in Egypt

Abstract

INTRODUCTION In the last decade, eGovernment has become one of the most important emerging applications of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). It has the potential of making government more transparent and effective which helps to overcoming the complexity of bureaucracy, increasing the efficiency of the economy, reducing the time taken to receive services and permitting businesses and citizens to connect directly to government information. As result of the perceived importance of eGovernment many developed and developing nations have attempted to initiate and implement eGovernment projects with mixed success. Among these nations very few have succeeded in achieving their set targets, whilst larger number have arguably failed (Heeks & Bhatnagar, 2001); United Nations Department for Economic and Social Affairs-UNDESA (2003c). According to the United Nations Department for Economic and Social Affairs-UNDESA (2003b) the percentage of failure amongst eGovernment projects worldwide varies from 60% to 80%. A survey conducted on 40 eGovernment projects in developing nations found that 35% of projects were considered as being total failures, 50% were considered of being partial failures and only 15% of the projects could be classed as success (Heeks, 2003a). The problem of failures with eGovernment IT projects - as with any IT project - failure, whatever the type of it, is that it is very costly (Khasawneh & Ibrahim, 2008). As well as the costs incurred from the direct loss of funding (i.e. funds spent without achieving any improvement in the public sector), there are indirect costs such as the loss of time and effort of public sector employees. There is also an unseen cost that can have implications beyond the project itself, which is the loss of trust towards the government itself (Heeks, 2003b). As noted above, one of the key aspects arising from failing projects is the loss of trust towards governments - particularly in respect of IT projects. The result is that eGovernment projects are in danger of losing their customer base (citizens), and will consequently join the list of 'failed government IT projects'. The research presented in this paper investigates the issue of trust and eGovernment projects in developing nation (Egypt) from the point of view of the citizen, with the aim of understanding the impact of trust on their take-up of eGovernment services, and the ultimate objective of improving the success rate of eGovernment projects. The hypotheses set out below have underpinned the research presented: H1: Trust has significant effect on using eGovernment services. H2: Technology trust has significant effect on using eGovernment services. H3: eGovernment trust has significant effect on using eGovernment services. The following sections begin with outlining the context of trust and eGovernment, and proceed to discuss two types of trust that are relevant in the context of eGovernment: trust in technology, and trust in eGovernment. These issues also fall within the scope of eGovernment implemented within developing nation (Egypt). Having set the background the authors introduce the research conducted by describing the method used, the findings from the data and the conclusion drawn from those results. EGOVERNMENT AND TRUST Defining eGovernment trust Trust as general concept can be defined as a set of expectations shared by all those in an exchange (Zucker, 1986). However, defining eGovernment trust is more complicated issue because of the different factors that can affect citizens' trust, as well as the broad range of stakeholders who contribute (to varying extents) to 'trusted eGovernment'. In many cases, personal characteristics, such as age and gender, have significant effect on determining trust for eGovernment. For example, elderly people in many situations prefer paper-based services which they have used for many years, rather than using an eGovernment website (Thomas, 1998). …