JTU396E E COMMERCE ASSIGNMENT 2
As a
matter of fact, trust is the essential element in customer point of view. Any
company would be undoubtedly believed it is slowly getting the momentum and
coming through the selected e-commerce application and tools. Trust by
definition[1] in
a social context, has several connotations. Definitions of trust typically
refer to a situation characterized by the following aspects: One party
(trustor) is willing to rely on the actions of another party (trustee); the
situation is directed to the future. In addition, the trustor (voluntarily or
forcedly) abandons control over the actions performed by the trustee. As a
consequence, the trustor is uncertain about the outcome of the other's actions;
he can only develop and evaluate expectations. The uncertainty involves the risk
of failure or harm to the trustor if the trustee will not behave as desired.
According to (Lewis and Weigert, 1985; Butler, 1991; Barber, 1983) trust is a
highly complex, multi-dimensional and (Luhmann, 1979) stated that it is
context-specific phenomenon. Papadopoulou, Kanellis and Martakos (2001) stated
in their case study, trust is fast becoming the focus of many Information
Systems researcher and that trust and relationship building can be proposed by
a theoretical model for the formation of trust in the customer-business
relationship. Five categories of trust in e-commerce was identified, and
analyzed into three major dimensions, namely determinants, approaches and
consequences. (Please refer to Appendix :
Table 1). According to Papadopoulou, Kanellis and Martakos (2001), the five
categories of trust types as presented in Table 1 indicate that research on
e-commerce trust is associated with the online system/application, the vendor,
the Internet shopping process, people at both intra[2]organizational
and inter[3]organizational
level and firm trust in e-business.
Determinant
factors (Papadopoulou, Kanellis and Martakos, 2001) represent factors that
influence trust in e-commerce or the lack of it. The factors proposed to have an impact on
trust are associated with the personality of the online consumer, the system,
the information, the vendor, the transaction, the business stakeholders, and
the external environment.
The
approaches proposed to address the problem of lack of trust are mainly
recommendations and suggested guidelines to designers of Information Systems (Shneiderman,
2000) and Internet companies towards establishing partial dimensions of trust
in various contexts and do not include specific methods or processes for the
formation of trust. They involve the design of the e-commerce system interface
(Egger, 2000), the content and the range of information provided (Urban et al.,
2000) and the way it is organized and displayed, security and privacy issues
(Hoffman et al., 1999), the provision of services, fulfillment, and the
business strategy in general (Urban et al., 2000; Einwiller et al., 2000).
The
consequence of trust is clearly reflected by the diversity of determinants and
approaches suggested in the case study. It is depending on the trust type questionable
and the purpose of the case study. Furthermore, trust has been considered as a
requirement that may result in reducing consumers’ perceived risk (Cheung and
Lee, 2000; Einwiller et al., 2000).
There
are numbers of researchers that highlighted and define the categorization of
trust models namely Egger, Chung & Lee, Ambrose and Johnson, Kini &
Choobineh and Tan & Thoen ( please
refer to appendix : Table 2 ) based on four main predecessors, namely
consumer characteristic, vendor related believes, environmental characteristics
and application related characteristics. According to Papadopoulou, Kanellis
and Martakos (2001), the findings of the trust models in the Table 2, showed
that the models they describe are limited to presenting the determinants of
trust and the way they interrelate and influence its creation. As a result,
they do not propose specific methods or processes for trust formation. This is
the main reason this case study is written to address the needs of the
conceptual model for the formation of trust in business-to-consumer e-commerce
relationships. The three aspect of trust, representing its constituents, its
determinants and its development modes, have been synthesized and theoretically
interrelated, resulting in an integrated model and a vertical understanding of
how trust is formed in a relational exchange between two parties ( Please refer
to Appendix : Table 3 ).
Papadopoulou,
Kanellis and Martakos (2001) model of trust formation ( Please refer to
Appendix : Figure 1 ) has been build based on the assumption that a repetition
interaction with promise made, enabled and kept within an electronic
servicescape. According to Wanninger’s et al. (1997), a servicescape is one of
the three primary components that comprise an e-commerce information system.
The other two are the supporting infrastructure and customer database &
analytical tools to support the relationship marketing.
The
model introduced in the case study indicated that a transference process
consists of disposition to trust, institution-based trust (McKnight and
Chervany, 1996) and initial trusting beliefs. Initially, customer has a tendency
to trust others based on personality and cultural factors which is called ‘disposition
to trust’, enhanced by the situations related which is called ‘institution-based
trust’, which involves legal aspects associated with e-commerce and perceptions
regarding the security and privacy offered by the business. According to Doney
and Cannon (1997), the customer has initial trusting beliefs that have been
formed through the transference process. As a result of this, the customer is
being open to promises made by the business. Then the customer is interested
and forms a trusting intention towards it and anticipates the promise to be
enabled.
When
the servicescape allow the promise, the trusting intention need to be manifested
and this will cause the customer to accept the risk inherent in the situation
and actually depend on the promise, thus act in a trusting behavior. The
positive impact on the customer’s perceptions by keeping the promise will
definitely cause the customer to actively interact with the servicescape
considering the quality of the interaction taking place and future expectation
by the customer towards the model. According to Carlzon (1987), this is call
“moment of truth”. The service encounter is evaluated by the customer and
comparison is made by the service expected and currently received. The process
would include customer satisfaction element and reflected in the customer’s
trusting beliefs (McKnight and Chervany, 1996). ( Please refer to Appendix :
Figure 2 ).
Papadopoulou,
Kanellis and Martakos (2001) stated that trust evolves over time as the
customer engages in repeated interactions with promises being fulfilled within
the servicescape. Each time a promise is made, enabled and kept, it is
evaluated with the intentionality, the capability and the credibility process
confirming customer’s trusting beliefs in the business benevolence, competence
and credibility. Trust[4]
can be attributed to relationships between people. It can be demonstrated that
humans have a natural disposition to trust and to judge trustworthiness that
can be traced to the neurobiological structure and activity of a human brain.
The
research paper is not fully completed and need to be revised again in the
future specially in the categorization part. A further research need to be done
and gain more inputs as the research goes on continuously.
As the
time goes by, the model introduced by the case study writer would be definitely
assisting and supporting its entity discussed. The trust concept on customer
would reflected the business as a whole and the firm accordingly.
Appendix
Table 1
Table 2
Table 3
Figure 1
Figure 2
