Evaluation and Analysis of Factors Affecting the Trust in Electronic Cities Case Study: Electronic City in Yazd

In the International Leaders Gathering (2003) which was held in line with the Global Information Society, special attention was paid to electronic cities as a part of the information society. Electronic cities provide the required software, hardware and groundwork for the citizens to access the databases of public services and private sector on the web, throughout every moment of days and nights. During the last decade in Iran, efforts have been made for creating electronic cities, including the attempts for creation of Kish, Mashhad and Shiraz electronic cities; however, unfortunately due to various reasons, these cities are not developed in an appropriate manner. Success of such attempts depends largely on the rate of application by the target users (citizens). Notwithstanding the fact that governments present a relatively good level of clarity as well as an appropriate range of innovative methods of serving, nevertheless some people remain suspicious toward using information technology in communicating with the government, municipality or the private sector, so that, especially in Iran, utilization of the electronic city services depends heavily on the amount of trust of users. Therefore, the aim of the present research is to determine the factors which can increase the trust of citizens in electronic city services. The research method here has been of survey type, and it is a kind of applied study in which such techniques as questionnaire, library documents and references as well as multiple regression were utilized in order to formulate and test the hypotheses. Findings of the research indicate that such components as the citizen's higher perception of the technology and of the reliability of the organization, quality of audio and video communications, ease of use, efficacy of electronic services, years of experience in internet usage, public desire to trust, trust in government and in internet and online purchasing, directly increase the confidence in electronic cities. On the other hand, such factors as age and concerns of people about violation of their privacy have negative impact on the trust.