Electronic government initiatives in the majority of cases pass a number of different stages, starting with a static Web site and ending with fully interactive sites that are capable of handling a multitude of transactions. The possibility of transferring money online plays an important role for those e-government initiatives that include financial Horst Treiblmaier, PhD, is Associate Professor. His areas of interest are communication strategies for electronic commerce, Web analysis and electronic customer relationship management (eCRM). He has authored more than fifty journal articles, conference papers and book chapters (E-mail: horst.treiblmaier@wu-wien.ac.at). Andreas Pinterits is Researcher. His research interest includes performance measurement instruments for electronic commerce companies and Web metrics (transactions, such as paying taxes, fees, or fines. This paper combines the issues of e-payment and e-government, and proposes a model that depicts important factors influencing users' online payment behavior. A structural equation modeling (SEM) approach has been used to assess the strength of the relationships among different constructs, including users' previous experience, their trust in e-payment security, and the perceived convenience of the payment process. Our results indicate that trust (both in a frictionless use of the system and in e-payment security) can be seen as an important antecedent for the adoption of online payments on the part of the users. From the government's point of view, the potentials of exerting influence seem to be somewhat limited: while national institutions in developed countries are usually perceived as trustworthy, users' attitudes toward the Internet may be more skeptical, depending on their previous experiences.

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This paper addresses the recent discussions on business models for e-learning. Throughout this paper, we contribute to this discussion by presenting first evidence for the sustainability of e-learning systems at universities. We discuss the cases of Learn@WU, EducaNext, and HCD-Online using a triangulation case study design and present both empirical cost structures and potential revenue models. The paper shows that there is a significant potential for revenue, but one revenue model is hardly enough to cover the cost. The size of the target audience as well as the (marketing) qualifications of the personnel have been identified as critical success factors for the sustainability of an e-learning system.