Factors Influencing Citizen Adoption of E-Government Services: A Cross-Cultural Comparison (Research in Progress)

E-government promises to transform the public sector by enhancing transparency, efficiency and accessibility of the public services. While most e-government endeavors continue to lag far behind their expected potentials, some nations adopt faster than others. Despite having one of the most advanced telecommunications infrastructures in the world, adoption of e-government in Germany has fallen far below expectations. Prior literature suggests that national culture shapes perception of the citizens thus facilitates or impedes adoption of new technologies. We argue that the high risk-averseness of the German nation hinders the current and future adoption of e-government services substantially. We present preliminary insights from our research in progress, which confirms this argumentation. Expected future results of our research include a cross-cultural analysis indicating the impact of national culture on e-government adoption by comparing Germany with United Kingdom and Sweden - two European nations with relatively low uncertainty avoidance and high e-government development indices.