Digital Government Digital Trust: Foundations, Determinants, and Implications

Abstract

Digital transformation has altered how governments design, deliver, and regulate public services. While smart government strategies have expanded rapidly across the world, their success increasingly depends on public trust. Without trust, citizens hesitate to adopt digital services, share personal data, or engage collaboratively with government initiatives. This article examines trust as a foundational component of smart government, focusing on the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as a leading case of digital transformation. Drawing on contemporary scholarship, interviews with key UAE government entities, and survey findings, the study explores how trust is shaped by perceptions of privacy, security, service quality, transparency, and institutional legitimacy. The analysis identifies organisational practices that cultivate resilience, accountability, and ethical conduct, and highlights the mechanisms through which stakeholders experience and influence trust in digital environments. A conceptual model is presented linking trust to digital transformation outcomes, including service innovation, institutional effectiveness, and citizen satisfaction. Recommendations are offered to strengthen trust-building practices, enhance user experience, reinforce governance structures, and guide future public sector digitalisation. The findings reaffirm that technological progress alone does not guarantee transformation; rather, trust functions as the central catalyst through which smart government initiatives achieve meaningful societal impact.