Citizen Trust in e-Government in Ireland - The Role of Website Service Quality

The emergence of the concept of e-government in the 1990s, the use of information and communications technology in the public sector turned from being inward looking and administration-focused to outward looking and service-focused. One aspect of this has been on-line tax filing which in Ireland takes the form of the Revenue Online Service (ROS). The purpose of this paper is to outline a research project that is currently being undertaken with the Irish Revenue Commissioners to evaluate the quality of ROS and the relationship between these e-service quality dimensions and citizen trust in the Revenue Commissioners. It describes the application of a newly developed website service quality measurement instrument in the unique context of electronic government. It is anticipated that the findings from this study will provide insight regarding the dimensions of website service quality that are most valued by users of ROS and also identify the dimensions of e-service quality that engender, or in their absence inhibit, citizen trust in this service. The application of this recently operationalised website service quality instrument will also provide evidence regarding the degree to which it is culture independent.

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