A New Model of Trust in e-Participation: An Empirical Research in Germany and Spain

E-Participation provides a means to involve citizens in e-government decision-making. The ease of access to e-Participation processes has raised the issue of trustworthiness of both the institutions promoting processes and the citizens participating in these processes. Trust is an important factor influencing all human decisions consciously or unconsciously. This also applies to decisions to engage in e-Participation activities. Trust is perceived as a complex construct and is influenced by various factors. Consequently, different factors have to be taken into account in an e-Participation activity. While trust in ICT applications, such as e-commerce and social media networks, has been widely studied, trust in e-Participation has not been studied in depth. Since it is necessary to create a trusted environment so that citizens choose to participate in e-Participation processes, this paper analyzes the factors that directly influence trust in e-Participation initiatives through an empirical research. Based on the model of trust for e-Participation by [1] the influence of “Technology” and “Participatory Processes” on trust and the decision to engage in an e-Participation is investigated by means of a systematic literature study together with an empirical study. The online survey was conducted in cooperation with the cities of Bonn (Germany) and Valencia (Spain). The study analyzes predominantly the factors that influence the procedure, the technology, and the perceived risk and/or the benefits of the electronic participation. The analysis of the variables and their effects is carried out by the use of the “Structural Equation Modeling” and “Partial Least Squares” method. The result of this study reveals an influence of the investigated variables related to trust in technology and participatory processes of an e-Participation which leads to corresponding design recommendations for optimization of trust in e-Participation regarding technology and participatory process.