Digital Trust and the Reconstruction of Trust in the Digital Society: An Integrated Model based on Trust Theory and Expectation Confirmation Theory

Digital technologies dominated by information technologies such as big data, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence are thriving. Driven by digital technology, digital society has been intertwined with people's living spaces, promoting the continuous innovation of public services and social governance. Compared with traditional society, the spatial boundaries are increasingly blurred in digital social form because the Internet connects the cities through mobile devices. The connection between cities is no longer limited to the traditional geographical concept, which provides more development opportunities for all stakeholders, including the government. Moreover, all kinds of devices gradually become smaller, and the processing capacity is more potent, the equipment cost is lower, and computing intelligence integrates into people's daily lives [1]. According to statistics, as of June 2021, Chinese netizens reached 1.011 billion, forming the world's largest and most vibrant digital society. Digital services are upgrading from shopping to consumption, tourism to leisure, and transportation to other life scenes. Besides, new digital life forms are constantly emerging in critical areas such as education, medical care, and employment. Digital society makes significant construction progress. Digital technology not only changes the scene of the times but also creates future life. By further optimizing the digital social environment, hundreds of millions of people will have a fuller sense of gain in sharing the development achievements of the Internet.

The arrival of digital society has changed the social situation of trust. Trust has developed from interpersonal trust in the agricultural economy to institutional trust in the industrial economy to digital trust in the Internet age. Digital trust is a new trust relationship among government, individuals, enterprises, and society in the Internet age. It is the reconstruction of the social trust model in the digital economy. In the era of digital society, people are more dependent on digital technology than ever before. Digital technology not only brings convenience to people's lives but also significantly reduces people's ability to control the surrounding environment and increases many risks, such as the risk of property loss and the risk of personal safety being infringed. As a psychological mechanism to reduce the complexity and uncertainty of the digital environment, digital trust affects the development of political, economic, cultural, and social activities in the digital society. Digital technology, as an essential technical means, affects the construction of trust. People need to build trust in digital government and transfer trust to the digital world through the intermediary of technology. Digital technology reconstructs the trust mode in society, and digital trust has become the most critical trust mode in the new Internet era.

Therefore, this paper discusses the influencing factors of users' digital trust in digital government based on user psychological programs and puts forward an integrated model with user satisfaction as the intermediary variable. The research questions are as follows: What influence factors affect digital trust? Does user perception affect digital trust through user satisfaction? Does user expectation affect digital trust through user satisfaction?

This part mainly discusses the process of questionnaire design, sample collection, and analysis method. We will discuss the influence factors of citizens' digital trust in digital society. For this purpose, we employ survey data collected from citizens who use governments' e-services in Beijing.

In the current research, many scholars have confirmed the impact of user perception on user satisfaction [30]. At the same time, due to the expectation confirmation model being a prevalent model, which scholars widely use, the impact of user expectations on satisfaction is also confirmed in most literature [31]. This idea is in line with our assumptions. In addition, most scholars often combine expectation confirmation theory with users' continuance intention when applying it and believe that user satisfaction promotes users' continuance intention [30, 31]. However, this paper argues that user satisfaction should first promote digital trust when promoting users' continuance intention. User satisfaction first affects digital trust, and then digital trust affects users' continuance intention. Consistent with the hypothesis, our results now provide new evidence that user satisfaction positively impacts digital trust. The higher the user satisfaction, the higher the digital trust. This is an interesting finding that other scholars can consider digital trust as an intermediary variable between user satisfaction and continuance intention when doing their research. User satisfaction of digital government can be divided into three categories. First, the satisfaction of system quality. It means that users are satisfied with the interface design and operation procedures of digital government. Second, satisfaction with information quality. This means that users are satisfied with the information provided by digital government. For example, the information provided by digital government is not false information, erroneous information or false news, and all government processes are transparent. Third, satisfaction with service quality. It means that after users use the digital government, they believe that the services provided by the digital government can meet their needs and bring convenience to their lives.

In addition, from the above results, it is clear that user perception has a direct positive impact on digital trust. People's perception depends on the external environment and their ability of understanding. Generally speaking, education level determines people's comprehension ability. Since people have different education levels, there will be gaps in their understanding. This gap in understanding is often one of the essential causes of the digital divide. People with high digital trust are more likely to use digital technology to maximize their interests. They can understand that the development of digital technology will provide people with a more convenient and efficient way of life. If people's digital trust level is low, they still live the traditional offline lifestyle and will encounter many inconveniences in life. For example, the Korean Foreigners' Administration requires that every foreigner must contact the Foreigners' Administration for registration after entering Korea. Due to a large number of foreigners, it is necessary to reserve a good time online and register directly according to the reservation without waiting. Suppose people are not used to the operation of the digital society and are reluctant to make an appointment online. In that case, they must queue for more than three hours, resulting in a severe waste of time and energy. A further novel finding is that user expectations indirectly affect digital trust. User satisfaction plays a mediating role between user expectations and digital trust. Although much literature has confirmed that user expectation positively impacts user satisfaction, no research has directly found the mediating effect of user satisfaction between user expectation and digital trust. The government should guide the user's expectations and not focus on solving all user problems. Instead, it should tell users what the digital government can solve for them most simply and directly when users first use them. The government should let users understand the application scenarios and the design goals of this digital government platform when they first use it. Users have their psychological expectations when using digital government websites or Apps and they will have a vague judgment through platform introduction or content classification. Once there is a conflict between the performance and introduction of the platform, user satisfaction will be harmed, thereby reducing digital trust. The introduction of digital government should be consistent with the function of digital government, not blindly grasp the keywords and hot spots. Therefore, the government should avoid unexpected factors conflicting with users' expectations when providing e-government services.

Another interesting conclusion is that user expectations have no direct impact on digital trust, and it needs to indirectly affect digital trust through user satisfaction, which plays a mediating role. The service platform of digital government has been developing continuously, and the expectations of users are also increasing. From interface design to the emphasis and promotion on privacy protection, user experience has been significantly improved. Like many users, digital government also hopes to provide users with excellent e-government service experiences. At the same time, the government also knows that where to solve the problem is not easy. Many researchers have made great efforts to solve this problem. First of all, it is worth the government's attention to realize that the expectations between users are not the same. User expectations are affected by factors such as age, gender, and educational background. For example, older groups want digital governments to adapt to the vision and brains of older people, and they want governments to provide e-government services that are simple, readable, and easy to operate. Disabled people want the digital government to provide services suitable for their group and not exclude them. Adolescents hope that digital government can provide an interesting and knowledgeable interface. For different user expectations, user satisfaction is also different, resulting in different digital trust. On the contrary, the formation of digital trust can promote the construction of digital government. Secondly, user expectations generally include features of usefulness and ease of use. The usefulness includes the functions of the digital government platform (what kind of service can be provided for users), privacy protection (ensuring the safety of users), and other characteristics. The usability includes interface design, operation process, and other parts. Design different digital government platforms according to different groups. To provide fair digital government services and improve user satisfaction and digital trust is an urgent issue for the government.

The most interesting finding of this paper lies in discovering the new combination of influencing factors of digital trust, and discovering the intermediary role of user satisfaction among user perception, user expectation, and digital trust. In the construction of digital trust, user satisfaction plays a vital role. The construction of digital trust in digital government should focus on the achievement of user satisfaction.