From Street Courage to Digital Governance: Assessing the Behavioral Intention of Post-Revolution Youth of Kathmandu to Adopt E-Government Services - An Integrated UTAUT and Trust Analysis

The recent Gen Z Revolution of 2025, which demanded an end to corruption, has reshaped how young citizens in Kathmandu view the role of the government. Against this background, the present study examines the behavioral intention (BI) of post-revolution youth of Kathmandu to make use of digital government services since e-governance is globally accepted as a tool for transparency, efficiency and accountability in the government. By extending the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) framework with Trust Expectancy (TE), the study explores how Performance Expectancy (PE), Effort Expectancy (EE), Social Influence (SI), Facilitating Conditions (FC), and Trust Expectancy (TE) influence the technology adoption intentions. Gender (GEN) and prior experience with the Government of Nepal’s “Nagarik” App (EXP) are included as moderators. Data were obtained from 350 respondents (N = 350) through an online survey. Using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM), the moderated model showed strong explanatory power with 78.6% of the variance in BI (R² = 0.786). Among the direct effects, PE (β = 0.261, p < 0.001) and FC (β = 0.250, p < 0.001) were the most influential predictors followed by TE (β = 0.187, p = 0.004), highlighting its importance amongst the youth that had very low trust in the government. Further, EE (β = 0.174, p = 0.010) and SI (β = 0.093, p = 0.010) also contribute to BI, though less significant. Regarding moderation, Gender has significant impact on SI (β = –0.130, p = 0.019), suggesting that peer-driven adoption dynamics differ between male and female youth. Overall, this study provides evidence-based findings about the key drivers of e-governance adoption amongst youth of developing countries like Nepal and highlights the implications for policymakers looking to answer to the demand of the youth for transparency and accountability in governance.