A presentation by Lisa Schmidthuber (Vienna University of Economics and Business). This event is part of the Digital Governance Research Colloquium hosted by the Centre for Digital Governance.
Abstract: Extant literature regarding citizen trust in government focuses on roles of transparency and provision of public information. Transparency, however, can have both positive and negative effects on trust, depending on concrete contexts. In this study, we argue that linking transparency and trust is conditional on citizen trust in information provided by government. If citizens distrust public information, transparency might hardly have any positive effects on citizen trust in government. Consequently, we concentrate on ‘how public information is presented’, and elaborate on the importance of data accessibility and source disclosure for trust in public information. We present the findings of a set of survey experiments.
Lisa Schmidthuber is a post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Management at Vienna University of Economics and Business. She received her doctoral degree in business administration from Johannes Kepler University Linz in 2018 with a paper-based dissertation on open government and the exploration and exploitation of external knowledge in the public sector. Her research interests include public innovation management, the introduction of modern technologies in public services, and accounting innovation.
