The Impact of Digital Governance Practices on Citizens' Trust in Local Government: The Mediating Role of Citizen Satisfaction and the Moderating Role of Digital Literacy in Pakistan

Abstract

Public administration is changing as a result of digital revolution, yet local administrations in developing nations still face significant challenges in building public trust. In addition to evaluating the moderating and mediating roles of digital literacy and citizen satisfaction, this study looks at how digital service quality, transparency, information accessibility, and responsiveness affect Pakistani citizens' trust in local government. A standardized five-point Likert-scale questionnaire was used to gather primary data from 1,035 Pakistani people who have used digital government services in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. Direct-effect, mediation, and moderation analyze were performed on the data using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) using SmartPLS 4. The results show that people' trust is greatly and favorably impacted by all four aspects of digital government. The positive impact was found in Digital Service Quality (β = 0.331, p < 0.001), followed by Transparency (β = 0.274, p < 0.001), Information Accessibility (β = 0.217, p = 0.002), and Responsiveness (β = 0.186, p = 0.006). The associations between Digital Service Quality and trust (β = 0.152, p = 0.001) and Transparency and trust (β = 0.136, p = 0.003) were considerably enhanced by digital literacy. The effects of information accessibility (β = 0.121, p < 0.001) and responsiveness (β = 0.109, p = 0.002) on trust were strongly mediated by citizen satisfaction. By combining service quality, transparency, accessibility, responsiveness, satisfaction, and digital literacy into a single paradigm, the study adds to the body of knowledge on digital governance and public trust. The results underscore the necessity of dependable, transparent, accessible, responsive, and digitally inclusive public services in order to bolster citizen confidence and promote evidence-based local governance in Pakistan.