John Benamati

Clarifying the Integration of Trust and TAM in E-Commerce Environments: Implications for Systems Design and Management

Two dominant theories-trust and technology acceptance-have been employed in numerous information systems research studies to help understand consumer behavior in e-commerce environments. In this context of voluntary Web site adoption and use, we provide a more precise understanding of the nomological network related to the cognitive variables (both beliefs and attitudes) that precede this use. Designers and engineers need to be concerned not just with building an objectively better Web site but also with building a Web site that conveys desirable characteristics. Although the theory of reasoned action has been acknowledged as the underlying theory for technology acceptance and some trust research, past studies integrating these two theories have omitted important variables from their models and have posited different causal relationships among model variables. This research argues for the reinclusion and/or clarification of belief and attitude constructs relevant to technology acceptance and trust research streams, explains why these constructs are critical for understanding causality in such models, proposes an integration model that is consistent with this argument, and finally tests this model in a context exploring initial reactions to an e-vendor and evaluates the relative importance of trust and technology acceptance variables in predicting user intentions.

Seeing Is Believing: The Transitory Influence of Reputation Information on E-Commerce Trust and Decision Making

This research examines the transitory influence of reputation information on consumer decision making regarding an e-vendor. Using social judgment theory to explain how reputation informations effect on perceptions may be fleeting, we specifically examined how user trusting beliefs related to an e-vendor change after a simple exposure to the Web site. A total of 369 college students participated in an experiment that found that reputation information was initially strongly related to trusting beliefs regarding the e-vendor, but a brief nonpurchase-related exposure to the e-vendors Web site—that is, direct experience—reduced reputations effects significantly. This research provides insights into why reputation information may be more important in certain circumstances than in others and enhances our understanding of how consumer decision making is affected by different purchasing contexts. This research also has implications on the design and use of trust-building technologies.

Coping with rapid changes in IT

affect budgetary issues in a multitude of ways. For example, it can produce the need for new skills and thus unforeseen training demands. It can also increase staffing requirements, cause the unanticipated need to integrate old and new IT, and create dilemmas about which particular IT to acquire and when to acquire it. Furthermore, vendors’ premature releases of new products can cause IT to work improperly. Internal IT staff might resist new IT and vendors might fail to supply expected support. When vendors exaggerate capabilities or buyers simply misunderstand them, new IT may engender the unexpected need for even more new IT [2]. IT organizations that adopt new IT more extensively than others probably face greater problems and must work more diligently to cope with them. What can IT organizations do to avoid unexpected work, delays, and other problems due to rapidly changing IT while still capitalizing on its benefits? This article discusses a study to understand how IT organizations cope with rapid IT change and how they might better do so. A field survey used the coping mechanisms listed in Table 1, and the sidebar provides details of how the study was conducted. In general, the findings suggest that IT organizations do not cope very effectively with rapid IT change. The findings also suggest guidance on how these organizations might cope better. The study arrived at these conclusions by using the survey to answer the following, important IT management questions:

Trust and distrust in online banking: Their role in developing countries

Similar to the adoption of automatic teller machines, banks around the world are looking at online banking services as the next technology to reduce costs while maintaining or enhancing services to the customer. In developing countries, the low cost of online banking may enable banks to reach new customers, much like the cell phone offered new possibilities in telephony. Banks must understand, however, that the mediating use of technology increases interpersonal distance between banks and their customers, which can both decrease trust and exacerbate distrust. This article examines the role of trust and distrust in online banking. A framework for categorizing existing and potential online banking users based on their trust and distrust of online banking is presented. Categorizations of users are discussed along with recommendations for how banks can address customer concerns.

Rapid Information Technology Change, Coping Mechanisms, and the Emerging Technologies Group

Information technology (IT) changes rapidly, seriously challenging IT management. In response, many organizations create a formal group of IT professionals to evaluate emerging IT so they can better cope with its change. A survey based on structured interviews was mailed to a nationwide sample of 1,000 IT organizations. Two hundred forty-six respondents provided data to identify categories of coping mechanisms to handle changing IT. Five categories emerged: Education and Training, Internal Procedures, Vendor Support, Consultant Support, and Endurance. Organizations apply Education and Training more extensively than the others. Thus the research contributes to understanding the means by which organizations cope with rapid IT change. The research also found that organizations with a group dedicated to investigating emerging IT cope more extensively, but not more successfully, than do those without one. Thus the research contributes not only by providing an understanding of how organizations cope with rapid IT change, but also by suggesting the need to achieve more from the group charged with emerging IT.Information technology (IT) changes rapidly, seriously challenging IT management. In response, many organizations create a formal group of IT professionals to evaluate emerging IT so they can better cope with its change. A survey based on structured interviews was mailed to a nationwide sample of 1,000 IT organizations. Two hundred forty-six respondents provided data to identify categories of coping mechanisms to handle changing IT. Five categories emerged: Education and Training, Internal Procedures, Vendor Support, Consultant Support, and Endurance. Organizations apply Education and Training more extensively than the others. Thus the research contributes to understanding the means by which organizations cope with rapid IT change. The research also found that organizations with a group dedicated to investigating emerging IT cope more extensively, but not more successfully, than do those without one. Thus the research contributes not only by providing an understanding of how organizations cope with rapid IT change, but also by suggesting the need to achieve more from the group charged with emerging IT.

Trustworthiness in B2C e-commerce: an examination of alternative models

Advancing research on trust requires clarifying the different conceptualizations of trust and trust-related constructs. The purpose of this study is to advance the theoretical conceptualization of trustworthiness by synthesizing previous research and testing three alternative conceptualizations within the e-commerce context. Data collected from multiple studies involving over 700 participants were used to examine the relative merits of trustworthiness as a one-dimensional construct, a grouping of three first-order constructs, and a second-order construct. Our results indicate that a one-dimensional view may be too simplistic, given the variety of factors that online consumers must weigh. Instead, the study suggests that trustworthiness is multidimensional and that both first- and second-order conceptualizations have a place in e-commerce trust research. Trust researchers should be guided by the research question, hypotheses, and research design in deciding which conceptualization to use.

Changing information technology and information technology management

Abstract Information technology is changing at a rapid rate. A theory has hypothesized that change in IT causes problems for IT managers and that they respond with coping mechanisms to handle these problems. Structured interviews with 16 IT professionals at different organizations identified 31 unique projects that used 86 new ITs which caused 142 problems. Eleven categories summarized the problems. The most common were training demands, vendor oversell, acquisition dilemmas, new integration, support burden, vendor neglect, and resistance. The eleven categories also summarized the coping mechanisms applied to these problems. The most common of these were education and training, inaction, internal support, vendor support, new procedures, and persuasion. This research provides practicing IT managers with alternative perspectives on the problems and a variety of coping mechanisms from which to choose. It also provides suggestions for future researchers.

Are Trust and Distrust Distinct Constructs? An Empirical Study of the Effects of Trust and Distrust among Online Banking Users

This study provides insights on the trust-related factors that influence consumer intentions to use online banking. Specifically, the study examines the relationships between trustworthiness, trust, distrust, and user intentions to use online banking services. Over 500 college students located across two different universities completed a survey designed to examine the effects of trustworthiness perceptions on trust and distrust, and the downstream influence of trust and distrust on intention to use. As hypothesized, results indicate that trust and distrust are distinct constructs, and that the established nomological network between trustworthiness, trust, and intention hold in the current context. Also supported is the new contention that trustworthiness is negatively related to distrust, and that distrust has a negative effect on intention to use. Finally, our hypothesis examining the relative contribution of trust and distrust on user intentions was not supported. In the context of this study, trust overwhelmed distrust.

How IT organizations handle rapid IT change: five coping mechanisms

Information technology (IT) has become a strategic resource in many organizations. As a result, the management of IT has dramatically increased in importance. However, IT is changing at a rapid rate. This change is increasing the complexity of the challenges facing IT managers. In fact, previous research has hypothesized that IT managers deliberately use specific coping mechanisms to deal with these challenges.The results from that research were used to construct a survey sent to a nationwide sample of 1,000 IT organizations. Two hundred forty-six respondents provided data to confirm the existence of and refine the definitions for coping mechanisms that IT managers apply to handle changing IT. The research contributes knowledge about how IT organizations cope with rapid IT change and about the relationship of various coping mechanisms to the reduction of the problems of rapidly changing IT. Five categories of coping mechanism – Education and Training, Vendor Support, Endurance, Internal Procedures, and Consultant Support – emerged. An overall model proposing that the use of those categories predicts the reduction in problems from new IT was significant. Moreover, Education and Training and Internal Procedures presaged problem reduction, whereas Endurance and Consultant Support presaged increased problems.

Decision support systems unfrastructure: The root problems of the management of changing IT

Rapidly emerging IT underpins decision support systems, but research has yet to explain the IT management challenges of such rapid change. This study sought to understand the problems of rapid IT change and the interrelationships between them. It used structured interviews with 16 IT professionals and 246 useable responses from a survey of 1000 such professionals. After identifying five problem categories, it proposed and tested theory that Vendor Competitiveness leads to Poor Quality, Incompatibility, and Management Confusion, and these increase Training Demands. Besides the theory, the research contributes a survey instrument and focal points to help IT managers better provide the infrastructure for DSS.