Trust-Building in Electronic Markets: Relative Importance and Interaction Effects of Trust-Building Mechanisms

Abstract

We examine the relative and complementary effectiveness of trust-building strategies in online environments. While prior research has examined various antecedents to trust, we investigated two trust-building mechanisms more in depth: Web site trust and vendor reputation. We tried to understand the relative effectiveness of these two important mechanisms to provide online businesses with a clear recommendation of how to establish trust in an effective and efficient manner. Drawing from the literature on trust, we proposed vendor reputation to be more effective than Web site trust. Moreover, we examined a potential complementary effect of these mechanisms so as to provide online businesses with a deeper understanding of how to derive superior trust. We hypothesize a small such effect. The study proposes a laboratory experiment to test the model.

Antecedents and consequences of trust in online product recommendations

“…Jarvenpaa and Tractinsky (1999) proposed that PWR would positively affect consumers' trust in an internet shop. Tams (2009) found that web vendors' reputations had a significant influence on consumers' trust in them as well.…”

“…Doney and Cannon (1997) also indicated that when a buying firm trusts the selling firm, it will trust the salesperson of the selling firm more. Tams (2009) demonstrated that website trust had a positive effect on vendor trust. Similarly people may be more willing to trust that the recommendations of most members of a website are useful when they also trust the quality and management of the website.…”