Vivek Choudhury

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

Evidence 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 delineated 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.

The impact of initial consumer trust on intentions to transact with a web site: a trust building model

This paper develops and tests a model of consumer trust in an electronic commerce vendor. Building consumer trust is a strategic imperative for web-based vendors because trust strongly influences consumer intentions to transact with unfamiliar vendors via the web. Trust allows consumers to overcome perceptions of risk and uncertainty, and to engage in the following three behaviors that are critical to the realization of a web-based vendor’s strategic objectives: following advice offered by the web vendor, sharing personal information with the vendor, and purchasing from the vendor’s web site. Trust in the vendor is defined as a multi-dimensional construct with two inter-related components—trusting beliefs (perceptions of the competence, benevolence, and integrity of the vendor), and trusting intentions—willingness to depend (that is, a decision to make oneself vulnerable to the vendor). Three factors are proposed for building consumer trust in the vendor: structural assurance (that is, consumer perceptions of the safety of the web environment), perceived web vendor reputation, and perceived web site quality. The model is tested in the context of a hypothetical web site offering legal advice. All three factors significantly influenced consumer trust in the web vendor. That is, these factors, especially web site quality and reputation, are powerful levers that vendors can use to build consumer trust, in order to overcome the negative perceptions people often have about the safety of the web environment. The study also demonstrates that perceived Internet risk negatively affects consumer intentions to transact with a web-based vendor. q 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Portfolios of Control in Outsourced Software Development Projects

This paper examines the evolution of portfolio of controls over the duration of outsourced information systems development (ISD) projects. Drawing on five cases, it concludes that many findings from research on control of internal ISD projects apply to the outsourced context as well, but with some interesting differences. The portfolios of control in outsourced projects are dominated by outcome controls, especially at the start of the project; although the precision and frequency of these controls varies across projects. Behavior controls are often added later in the project, as are controls aimed to encourage and enable vendor self-control. Clan controls were used in only two of the cases--when the client and vendor had shared goals, and when frequent interactions led to shared values. In general, the outsourced projects we studied began with relatively simple controls but often required significant additional controls after experiencing performance problems. Factors influencing the choice and evolution of controls are also examined.

Uses and consequences of electronic markets: an empirical investigation in the aircraft parts industry

An electronic market is an interorganizational information system through which multiple buyers and sellers interact to accomplish one or more of the following market-making activities: (1) identifying potential trading partners, (2) selecting a specific partner, and (3) executing the transaction. It has been suggested that electronic markets, by lowering search costs, may lead to significantly increased price competition among sellers and hence, lower prices for buyers. Or, by allowing efficient, direct interaction between buyers and sellers, they may eliminate the role of intermediaries. Little evidence exists to support the claims. This paper empirically examines the validity of these arguments in the context of one electronic market: Inventory Locator Service (ILS) in the aircraft parts industry.Specifically, the paper addresses two questions: When do buyers use an electronic market? How do electronic markets affect each of the following: prices, inventory levels, and the role of brokers? The data show that current models do not adequately capture the complexity of electronic markets. For instance, while ILS sometimes helps buyers find a better price, in other cases it can help suppliers extract an extra premium by providing more accurate information on parts availability. ILS has also had little impact on the extent to which brokers are used, although the specific nature of the value added by brokers appears to be changing. Finally, inventory levels in the industry have been unaffected by the use of ILS.The scope of ILS is limited to the identification process only, so caution must be exercised in generalizing the findings to systems that also support selection and execution. However, the data do suggest additional variables that must be considered in understanding the uses and impacts of electronic markets, including the scope of the electronic market.

Shifting Factors and the Ineffectiveness of Third Party Assurance Seals: A Two‐Stage Model of Initial Trust in a Web Business

Little empirical research has addressed how trust building occurs across the early stages of a consumers web experience. This paper tests the effects of privacy assurance and industry endorsement seals, reputation advertising by a web business, disposition to trust, and structural assurance on consumer trust across two early stages: the introductory stage, in which a consumer has only second‐hand information about the site, and the exploratory stage, when the consumer first visits the website. The study found, first, that disposition to trust and structural assurance had a significant effect on trust in the web business in both the exploratory and introductory stages, showing that their effects did not erode over time. Second, reputation advertising was found to be an effective way to build trust. Third, counter to prevailing opinion and popular practice, neither a noticeable TRUST‐e privacy seal nor a noticeable professional association seal had any significant impact on trust in the web business. When ...

Distrust and trust in B2C e-commerce: do they differ?

Researchers have not studied e-commerce <u>distrust</u> as much as e-commerce <u>trust</u>. This study examines whether trust and distrust are distinct concepts. If trust and distrust are the same, lack of distrust research matters little. But if they are different, the lack of distrust research could be problematic because distrust may have a unique B2C impact. While some researchers believe distrust simply means a low level of trust, others believe distrust is a concept entirely separate from trust. For the latter to be true, trust and distrust variables must first demonstrate discriminant validity from each other, and second, differ in what they themselves predict. This paper tests whether or not trust and distrust variables are distinct. It finds that three sets of trust and distrust concepts are discriminant from each other and that they tend to predict different variables. The findings also show that distrust is an important predictor of risky B2C actions like willingness to share information and willingness to purchase.

Whoops... did I use the wrong concept to predict e-commerce trust? Modeling the risk-related effects of trust versus distrust concepts

Significant work has been initiated on trust in e-commerce settings, but little research has addressed distrust. Because of its connection to the insecurities that are found in risky situations, disposition to distrust is particularly suited to addressing issues of high risk, while disposition to trust is better suited for low risk issues. High risk issues include: a) perceptions that the Web is risky; and b) a willingness to depend on a specific unknown Web vendor in light of that risk. This theoretical position serves as the basis of a model of what causes consumers to initially decide to trust/distrust the Web and to explore and trust a Web site. The model includes three dispositions to trust constructs and one disposition to distrust construct. As proposed, the study found that disposition to trust predicted the low risk Web constructs, while disposition to distrust predicted the high risk Web constructs. This suggests that disposition to distrust has greater potential for predicting high-risk outcome constructs in e-commerce. This article contributes by showing how various aspects of disposition to trust/distrust affect consumer Web perceptions in different ways, depending on their level of risk. For e-commerce research, the findings of this article suggest that perhaps scholars have been studying a less effective factor for addressing risk - disposition to trust - instead of what may be a more effective factor - disposition to distrust.