THE MEDIATING EFFECT OF GOOD GOVERNANCE ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN E-GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC TRUST IN LEBANON   Recently, economic reform has been the main concern of many contemporary politicians and economists all over the world

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THE MEDIATING EFFECT OF GOOD GOVERNANCE ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN E-GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC TRUST IN LEBANON

 

Recently, economic reform has been the main concern of many contemporary politicians and economists all over the world. It is obvious that all countries, including the developed and the less developed as well, are seeking to achieve one major goal; which is improving and sustaining the economic growth. However, there is delay in development which is due to the weak financial planning, lack of good governance, shortage of technology, weakness in the investments, lack of trust2 in government, and inappropriate achieving progress. Smith (2010) claimed that most recent survey studies have shown a worrying trend of declining trust in institutions of democratic governance, in which this form of trust as well as the good governance, play a key role regarding the social and economic progress (Ahrens, 2006; Hong & Yan, 1997). Hence, this research focuses on the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in government practices, mainly egovernment3 or electronic government which is considered recently as one of the most leading aspects of the economic reform. Sequentially, the transformation of typical economies into e-economy enhances the overall economic growth within the nation, making it the most common unit of governance in both, the developed and the developing world (El Gawady, 2005).

Saxena (2005) declares that implementation of e-governance is achieved through a reform practice and not only through the computerization of government transactions. Hence, such reform will contribute in the empowerment of citizens by providing an information society where all can access the information related to social, economic and political opportunities that the government offers. Consequently, excellence in e-governance is increasingly becoming a key national priority for all rich and poor developed and developing countries. It is important to build the trust in government and advance the relationship involving the government and the citizens through the accountability, participation and interaction (Nadu, 2004). Yet, it is noted by Grimmelikhuijsen (2012) that trust in government has remarkably decelerated in the foremost developing countries. High levels of trust in government are considered essential for societies to prosper and for governments to function well. Furthermore, trust in government is regarded as an essential element in developed and developing societies since it helps to make a country's economy run smoothly and maintaining its prosperity (World Bank, 2013a).

Developing countries have to practice a more dynamic function in the formulation of national strategies and policies through e-government to encourage the information economy, which in turn brings in lot of benefits in terms of economic and social growth. Developing countries need to put their own manners toward economic modernization and transformation that provide more efficient administration, promote transparency, enhance the business environment in general and then build the trust among the citizens (REO, 2012)

The decline of public trust in government is one of current troubles faced by the modern governance and it has been the focus of many theories and research. This lack in trust is the result of poor governance and corruption. Without trust, citizens may withdraw voluntary compliance of governmental demands and regulations or even actively resist governmental policy. Therefore, it is important to study how radical information technologies such as e-government can make procedures well-organized and offer better quality of services through establishing a good governance system, which in turn strengthens the public trust towards the government (Manika & Roxburgh, 2011; Kefela, 2011).

E-government has been proposed as a solution to increase the interaction and trust between citizens and governments. The World Bank has started publishing reports since the early 1990s recommending the importance of information technology as a driver for economic growth and emphasizing the need of developing countries for adopting it (Luyt, 2006).

Lot of economic researchers have studied the relationship between technologies and its influence on good governance and trust (Lowcock, 2013; Baquero, 2012; Berthon et al., 2008; Tolbert & Mossberger, 2006; Lau, 2005; Saidi, 2003). For example, Saidi (2003) suggested e-government as a new system to support the Lebanese economy and it was considered as a significant tool for increasing the transparency and enhancing the citizen's trust through a continuous administrative improvement strategy.

It is argued by several studies (Grimmelikhuijsen, 2012; Tolbert & Mossberger, 2006; Warkentin et al., 2002) that there is a shortage of empirical information about egovernment and its influences on the attitudes and trust.

Based on the above highlighted issues, the main problem of this research can be stated that without an effective economic reform, corruption and mistrust will continue to escalate among developing countries such as Lebanon. Hence, the successful implementation of egovernment system may help the Lebanese government to reduce corruption, improve governance and consequently, enhance the public trust towards it.

Therefore, the contribution of this study is to extend the previous research related to egovernment in relationship with good governance (Haque & Pathrannarakul, 2013; Rotchanakitumnuai, 2013; Shim & Eom, 2008; Pathak & Prasad, 2006; Holliday & Yep, 2005; OECD, 2003; Mucavele, 2003, Wong & Welch, 2004) as well as with public trust (Jalali & Khorasani, 2012; Lean et al., 2009; Das et al., 2009; Tolbert & Mossberger, 2006; Welch, et al., 2005). In addition, studying the meditating effect of good governance on these relationships would enrich the literature as was suggested by Park and Blenkinsopp (2011) especially through conducting an empirical study for the advantage of the public sector in Lebanon and analyzing it using SEM as the study that was conducted by Parent et al., (2005).

Generally, this research pays to ask: what is the mediating effect of good governance on the relationship between e-government and public trust in Lebanon?

The general objective of this research is to study the mediating effect of good governance on the application of e-government and public trust.

The theory of Institutional-based Trust is derived from sociology. It is widely applied to understand the value of trust in the online transactions where legal, political and social rules of organizations are the most significant determinants of trust in any society (Zucker 1986). Trust is provided through formal mechanisms that do not rest on personal 85 characteristics or on past history of exchange. Yet it helps to reduce both systemdependent and transaction specific uncertainty (Sojan & Ewald, 2003).

As the innovation diffusion theory suggests, diffusion occurs as individuals, groups, organizations, or subsystems accept and use new ideas such as technologies (Lippert & Forman, 2005). DoI theory suggests that innovation diffusion is basically based on two factors, the perception of the characteristics of the technology and the user's perception of 87 the system. However, the rate of diffusion is affected by an innovation's relative advantage, complexity, and compatibility and trial ability. In addition to the image, visibility, results from demonstrability and voluntariness of use of the innovation (Al-zuabi, 2012; Carter & Bélanger, 2005). Integrating these two models would explain the attitudes of citizens towards technology. In fact, posting data and policies online, clarifying laws, schedules and security statements would enhance the transparency and responsibility of e-government services (Tolbert & Mossberger, 2006). Also, the use of the latest technology to automate processes improves service delivery and encourages citizens to participate and trust the government respectively.

This study is classified as a correlational research since it studies the correlation among different variables (Leary, 2004), mainly e-government practices, good governance and public trust. The methodology of research was selected to be quantitative in order to reach larger sample of respondents (Sekaran & Bougie, 2011; Chen & Hirschheim, 2004). In, addition, this study will adopt the deductive approach and positivism philosophy. 

In order to select the appropriate population and sample of this research, several studies were reviewed. The samples are identified according to sample frame, validity, reliability and measurements. For instance, Abdelghaffar (2012) used small and medium sized enterprises (SME's) as the sample frame of his research to study the adoption of egovernment services in Egypt. SME's were selected because it is considered a core part of economies in developing countries and play a central role in enhancing the economic dynamism. To the present time, there are no recent reports about the SME's number in Lebanon. Yet, El Khoury5 (2013) estimated that the current number of SMEs in Lebanon is 170,000 with 90.7% of all enterprises have between one and four employees. According to Canaan (2011), the main enterprises tend to be located in more developed areas such as; the Capital Beirut while micro enterprises dominate poorer regions with more restricted access to finance, markets, services and infrastructure. Therefore, the population of the study is confined to the Capital Beirut which is the most civilized and developed province in Lebanon. Since there is no vast difference between statistics of 2013 and 2004, the number of SMEs in Beirut is estimated to present the same 14% of total SMEs number in Lebanon. Thus, 170,000 × 14% = 23,800 SMEs in Beirut. As for selecting the sample frame of this study, it is essential to have educated respondents who work in an active environment such as SME's. Managers and Employees interact frequently with e-government services by virtue of their working conditions at SMEs. Thus, they would constitute a representative and an interesting sample frame for this research. 

According to Sekaran (2003), the unit of analysis can be individual, groups, or organization. Therefore, the unit of analysis used in this study is the individual since the aim of this study is to measure the public trust, represented by the SME's managers and employees who are highly educated and in direct contact with e-government services. This research applies the probability sampling; mainly the simple random sampling where selections are made purely by chance to cover all the managers and employees in the SME's without any limitations (Dawson, 2007).

Moreover, a minimum sample size of 200 is necessary to be used if the research analysis is being conducted through SEM in order to generate valid fit measures (Kenny, 2012; Lei 92 &Wu, 2007). According to the formula provided by Dillman (2000) and cited by Vaske and Needham (2008), the sample size is calculated as following: 

???? = (p)(1 − p) (???? − 1) ( β ???? ) 2 + (p)(1 − p) 

Where, n = calculated sample size p = the proportion of the population expected to chosen N = size of population β = the acceptable amount of precision or sampling error C = the K value associated with the confidence level For a homogenous sample, it is better to use a level of proportion p = 0.5, since the respondent's proportion is not known before data collection (Weaver, 2006; Dillman, 2000). 

???? = 23,800(0.5)(1 − 0.5) (23,800 − 1) ( 0.05 1.96) 2 + (0.5)(1 − 0.5) n = 378. 

Therefore, a redundant sample of 400 respondents would be sufficient and representative taking in consideration the expected response rate and statistical tools used.

The required primary data are collected through a survey where personal administrated questionnaires are distributed among the target sample of the study. 

Questions: 

1. What is the research title of this project? 
2. What is the problem statement of this research? 
3. What is the question of this research? 
4. What is the objective of this research? 
5. What is the gap of this research, give an evidence? 
6. What are the theories that underpin this research? 
7. What is the hypothesis of this research? 
8. What is the independent variable, dependent variable and the mediator variable? 
9. What is the method of this research? 
10. What is the Philosophy of this research? 
11. What is the approach of this research? 
12. What is the data type of this research? 
13. What is the research tool? 
14. What is the population of this research? 
15. What is the sample and how was it calculated? 
16. What is the sample size? 
17. What is the unit of the population?