Online trust: a stakeholder perspective, concepts, implications, and future directions (original) (raw)

Online Trust and e-Business Strategy: Concepts, Implications, and Future Directions

2000

Online trust is growing in importance. Consumers and businesses, feeling the pressure of economic downturn and terrorism, increasingly look to buy from and do business with the most trusted Web sites. Companies' perception of customer trust has steadily evolved from being a construct involving security and privacy issues to a multidimensional, complex construct that includes credibility, emotional comfort and quality. Further, trust online spans the end-to-end aspects of e-business rather than being just based on the electronic storefront. Based on a review of selected studies, we propose a stakeholder theory of trust, articulate a broad conceptual framework of online trust including its underlying elements, antecedents, and consequences, and propose some promising future research avenues in online trust.

Developing and Validating Trust Measures for e-Commerce: An Integrative Typology

E vidence suggests that consumers often hesitate to transact with Web-based vendors because of uncertainty about vendor behavior or the perceived risk of having personal information stolen by hackers. Trust plays a central role in helping consumers overcome perceptions of risk and insecurity. Trust makes consumers comfortable sharing personal information , making purchases, and acting on Web vendor advice—behaviors essential to widespread adoption of e-commerce. Therefore, trust is critical to both researchers and practitioners. Prior research on e-commerce trust has used diverse, incomplete, and inconsistent definitions of trust, making it difficult to compare results across studies. This paper contributes by proposing and validating measures for a multidisciplinary, multidimensional model of trust in e-commerce. The model includes four high-level constructs—disposition to trust, institution-based trust, trusting beliefs, and trusting intentions—which are further de-lineated into 16 measurable, literature-grounded subconstructs. The psychometric properties of the measures are demonstrated through use of a hypothetical, legal advice Web site. The results show that trust is indeed a multidimensional concept. Proposed relationships among the trust constructs are tested (for internal nomological validity), as are relationships between the trust constructs and three other e-commerce constructs (for external nomological validity)—Web experience, personal innovativeness, and Web site quality. Suggestions for future research as well as implications for practice are discussed.

A Conceptual Model of Trust In the Online Environment

Online Information Review, 2007

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to show that trust is an important factor for successful online transactions. Although the importance of trust has been examined from various perspectives, the studies on online trust have been fragmented in nature and are still in their infancy. Design/methodology/approach -This paper explores factors that affect the formation of end-user trust in online environments. The study proposes a conceptual framework, which categorises the affecting elements under internal and external factors affecting end-user trust formation. Findings -The results suggest that the actual outcome of trust-enhancing methods in online environments should be the development of long-term trusted customer relationships. Research limitations/implications -More empirical research efforts need to be directed to study trust in online environments. This study is conceptual and qualitative in nature, which is its main limitation. Practical implications -Companies operating in the online environment should focus their attention on the trust formation process and its management as well as creating and managing their relationships with important third parties. Originality/value -The study is significant for two reasons. First, it synthesises online trust literature and, second, it presents an integrative trust model.

International Journal of Electronic Commerce What Trust Means in E- Commerce Customer Relationships: An Interdisciplinary Conceptual Typology

Trust is a vital relationship concept that needs clarification because researchers across disciplines have defined it in so many different ways. A typology of trust t ypes would make it easier to compare and communicate results, and would be especially valuable if the types of trust related to one other. The typology should be interdisciplinary because many disciplines research e-commerce. This paper justifies a parsimonious interdisciplinary t ypology and relates trust constructs to e-commerce consumer actions, defining both conceptual-level and operational-level trust constructs. Conceptual-level constructs consist of disposition to trust (primarily from psychology), institution-based trust (from sociology), and trusting beliefs and trusting intentions (primarily from social psychology). Each construct is decomposed into measurable subconstructs, and the typology shows how trust constructs relate to already existing Internet relationship constructs. The effects of Web vendor interventions on consumer behaviors are posited to be partially mediated by consumer trusting beliefs and trusting intentions in the e-vendor.

Trust Research in the Transactional Context and Its Implications for Online Trust

2003

In the context of electronic commerce (eCommerce), trust is critical to business relationship, because no transaction will take place before a buyer trusts an unknown online seller. However, little has been known about the nature of online trust. In this paper, we propose a framework to categorize the transactional contexts within which trust takes place. Based on this framework, we then review the literature and examine the special nature of online trust. The theoretical foundations are offered to explain the major antecedents of online trust. Finally the future research issues of online trust that are challenging the research community are identified.

Trust in E-Commerce conceptualization and operationalization issues

2008

ABSTRACT Although online trust has been widely recognized as a multidimensional concept, empirical research that captures this multidimensionality appears to be scarce and disjointed. This paper provides a critical review and analysis of empirical studies examining trust under the notion of trusting beliefs. Three categories of empirical studies are identified and analyzed with respect to how trust is treated at the conceptual and empirical level.

How shall I trust the faceless and the intangible? A literature review on the antecedents of online trust

Computers in Human Behavior, 2010

Trust is generally assumed to be an important precondition for people's adoption of electronic services. This paper provides an overview of the available research into the antecedents of trust in both commercial and non-commercial online transactions and services. A literature review was conducted covering empirical studies on people's trust in and adoption of computer-mediated services. Results are described using a framework of three clusters of antecedents: customer/client-based, website-based, and company/ organization-based antecedents. Results show that there are many possible antecedents of trust in electronic services. The majority of the research has been conducted in the context of e-commerce; only few studies are available in the domains of e-government and e-health. For many antecedents, some empirical support can be found, but the results are far from univocal. The research calls for more, and particularly more systematic, research attention for the antecedents of trust in electronic services. The review presented in this paper offers practitioners an overview of possibly relevant variables that may affect people's trust in electronic services. It also gives a state-of-the-art overview of the empirical support for the relevance of these variables.