Interorganizational Trust in Business to Business E-Commerce

Most previous research in the Information Systems discipline focused on information systems and technology, e-commerce applications such as Inter-Organizational Systems (IOSs), competitive advantages, and security issues. The emphasis on IOSs' gave rise to concerns about Inter-Organizational Relationships (IORs), as trading partners became aware of the social-political factors that affected their relationships. IOSs involve the sharing of e-commerce applications in different locations. When this study was initiated in 1997, universal standards were not fully developed. This posed a security concern for Small-Medium-Enterprises, particularly in Australia and New Zealand. This study examines the importance of inter-organizational trust (trading partner trust) in ecommerce participation. The objective of this study is to empirically examine the importance of interorganizational- trust in e-commerce participation. Despite the acknowledged importance of trust, only limited research has examined the role of trust among trading partners in business-to-business e-commerce, when this study was initiated in 1997. As the participation in e-commerce increased, the need for trust among trading partners became more pertinent in business-to-business e-commerce. Exploratory research was carried out via three case studies in the automotive industry. The automotive industry was selected as a critical and typical case for Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) via Value-Added-Networks, and the findings emphasized on the importance of interorganizational trust in e-commerce participation. The exploratory study, together with a literature review, provided the theoretical foundations for the development of the conceptual model. Theories from multiple disciplines including the marketing, management, sociology, information systems and e-commerce were applied in the conceptual model. The research question developed for this study is: How does inter-organizational trust (trading partner trust) influence the perception of ecommerce benefits and risks of e-commerce, thus influencing the extent of participation in ecommerce? The conceptual model was then tested using a multiple-case-study research strategy that aimed to solicit qualitative and in-depth understanding of inter-organizational trust in the context of business-tobusiness e-commerce. Ten organizations from a cross-industry selection that formed four bi-directional dyads and two uni-directional dyads participated in the study. They included a public sector organization involved in customs clearance; their Internet service provider; a customs agent (broker); an importer; two organizations in the computer and data communications industry; two organizations in the telecommunications industry; and two organizations in the automotive industry. The primary unit of analysis in this study is the uni-directional dyad. The case study participants included e-commerce coordinators, IT managers, and senior executives involved in e-commerce. In addition, e-commerce applications, existing documents, and standards contributed to secondary data sources. For example, trading partner agreements, organizational charts, web sites, and internal security policies gave evidence of the organizations' best business practices and background information on the organization and their products. The findings of the four bi-directional dyads (eight organizations) and the two uni-directional dyads indicated that trust was important for participation in e-commerce. The findings differed by the type of e-commerce application used and the industry. For example, organizations that developed extranet applications had only one trading party (the supplier) undertaking the implementation process. Suppliers were involved in the installation of their websites that provided product information. In addition, suppliers had to train their buyers to use extranet applications. The products consisted of many different parts, (such as data communications, computers and telecommunications) which made the task of placing an order complex. These inter-organizational dyads (Cisco-Compaq NZ, and Siemens-Telecom NZ) experienced relational risks arising from the need to establish trust among their trading partners. On the other hand, Avery Ford NZ and Toyota NZ applied intranet applications and Internet-based EDI for routine orders between the manufacturers and suppliers. Smaller organizations such as the customs broker and the importer experienced a smooth e-commerce adoption due to their application "Trade Manager" which was not connected to the Internet. The study contributes to theory, practice and research in the following ways: First, rather than inferring characteristics of e-commerce adoption from a technical and economic background, this study examined behavioral characteristics of trading partners in business-to-business ecommerce from theories in multi-disciplines. The primary emphasis of prior research was on transaction economics, its competitive advantages and/or external pressure (socio-political). This study focused on the importance of inter-organizational trust in e-commerce participation. The findings of the study led to the development of a model of inter-organizational trust within bi-directional dyads in e-commerce participation. Second, the study contributed to practice as it increased the awareness of e-commerce practitioners, who will check the trust behaviors of themselves and that of their trading partners. Trading partners will be better able to select and evaluate trust and security-based mechanisms in e-commerce, thus protecting themselves against opportunistic behaviors of their trading partners. Third, the study contributed to research as it paved the way for longitudinal studies. This study only took a micro-perspective of inter-organizational trust within dyadic relationships as it was intended to be an exploratory study. Further research should extensively test the model using a field survey with business-to-business e-commerce organizations.This thesis aims to empirically examine the role of inter-organizational trust (trading partner trust) in e-commerce participation. By doing so, trust behaviors in business relationships were identified. The findings from ten organizations that formed four bi-directional dyads and two uni-directional dyads contributed to a model of inter-organizational trust within bi-directional dyads. The model identified the development of inter-organizational trust in three stages and identified trust behaviors and characteristics involved in the gradual development of trust from one stage to the next stage, thus providing an awareness of trust behaviors that trading partners need to develop. For example competence trust emphasized on an individual or team's ability and skills to operate e-commerce system and applications (i.e. is at a technical level). Predictability trust examined the reflections and interpersonal experiences of the trading partners based on past experiences, and a consistency of trading partner behaviors. Goodwill trust examined the institutional (i.e. the organization's image, reputation that determines the strategic benefits). Overall, the findings indicated that trust in inter-organizational relationships clearly matter

Building trustworthy e-Commerce wesite

The process of building consumer trust in E-Commerce is based on the presence of trust features or trust attributes in the websites. Consumer may examine e-Commerce websites for the existence of trust attributes. However, to date, which trust attributes contribute to the website’s trustworthiness and which trust attributes give more value to consumer has not been adequately explored. Therefore, the purpose of the paper is to look for the relevant trust attributes for e-Commerce websites and to identify the importance ranking of trust attributes that contribute significantly to the trustworthiness of e-Commerce website. Various journal papers and articles related to e-Commerce field have been referred in order to identify the trust attributes. An online survey that received 1230 respondents was carried out to investigate the importance ranking of ten trust attributes. The paper contributes to the discussion on how to build trust in e-Commerc

Culture and e-commerce: An exploration of the perceptions and attitudes of Egyptian internet users

This paper examines the perceptions and attitudes that Egyptian users hold towards electronic shopping sites. Internet sites are globally available, opening up huge potential markets for online retailers. However, it remains unclear whether sites designed for the US or European markets will be acceptable in other cultures. This paper describes an exploratory card sorting study conducted with Egyptian consumers. The study was designed to examine the e-commerce interface features that are most salient to this user group and to explore how these relate to user intentions to engage in internet shopping. The results support the role of site familiarity in predicting purchase intentions within this cultural setting

Generating citizen trust in e-government using a trust verification agent: A research note

Generating Citizen Trust in e-Government using a Trust Verification AgentThis is an eGISE network paper. It is motivated by a concern about the extent to which trust issues inhibit a citizen’s take-up of online public sector services or engagement with public decision and policy making. A citizen’s decision to use online systems is influenced by their willingness to trust the environment and agency involved. This project addresses one aspect of individual “trust” decisions by providing support for citizens trying to evaluate the implications of the security infrastructure provided by the agency. Based on studies of the way both groups (citizens and agencies) express their concerns and concepts in the security area, the project will develop a software tool – a trust verification agent (TVA) - that can take an agency’s security statements (or security audit) and infer how effectively this meets the security concerns of a particular citizen. This will enable citizens to state their concerns and obtain an evaluation of the agency’s provision in appropriate “citizen friendly” language. Further, by employing rule-based expert systems techniques the TVA will also be able to explain its evaluation.Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, UK (grant GR/T27020/01

Generating citizen trust in e-government using a trust verification agent: A research note

Generating Citizen Trust in e-Government using a Trust Verification AgentThis is an eGISE network paper. It is motivated by a concern about the extent to which trust issues inhibit a citizen’s take-up of online public sector services or engagement with public decision and policy making. A citizen’s decision to use online systems is influenced by their willingness to trust the environment and agency involved. This project addresses one aspect of individual “trust” decisions by providing support for citizens trying to evaluate the implications of the security infrastructure provided by the agency. Based on studies of the way both groups (citizens and agencies) express their concerns and concepts in the security area, the project will develop a software tool – a trust verification agent (TVA) - that can take an agency’s security statements (or security audit) and infer how effectively this meets the security concerns of a particular citizen. This will enable citizens to state their concerns and obtain an evaluation of the agency’s provision in appropriate “citizen friendly” language. Further, by employing rule-based expert systems techniques the TVA will also be able to explain its evaluation.Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council-UK (grant GR/T27020/01

An Exploratory Study on the Level of Trust towards Online Retailers among Consumers in the United Kingdom and Malaysia

This study aims to investigate the extant level of trust towards online retailers among consumers in two different geographical and cultural locations – UK and Malaysia based on Michell’s et al. trust model. The objectives of this study are: 1. To identify the predictive variables of customers’ trust towards online retailers 2. To ascertain the extent of the consumer trust variable as being the essential element of online shopping 3. To analyse the differences in perception of online trust between consumers in the United Kingdom and Malaysia The study showed that online retailers are comparatively more trusted in UK than in Malaysia indicative by the higher average levels of trust from consumers in the UK. Additionally, the UK had a higher age group in the 25 – 34 category contributing the highest average trust value compared to Malaysia’s highest average trust value found in the lower 18 – 24 age group. There were a relatively higher percentage of male users; 66 per cent and 78 per cent in the UK and Malaysia respectively. Multiple stepwise regressions were used to analyse the level of trust against the selected trust correlates

Trusted operational scenarios - Trust building mechanisms and strategies for electronic marketplaces.

This document presents and describes the trusted operational scenarios, resulting from the research and work carried out in Seamless project. The report presents identified collaboration habits of small and medium enterprises with low e-skills, trust building mechanisms and issues as main enablers of online business relationships on the electronic marketplace, a questionnaire analysis of the level of trust acceptance and necessity of trust building mechanisms, a proposal for the development of different strategies for the different types of trust mechanisms and recommended actions for the SEAMLESS project or other B2B marketplaces.trust building mechanisms, trust, B2B networks, e-marketplaces

Evaluating trust in electronic commerce : a study based on the information provided on merchants' websites

Lack of trust has been identified as a major problem hampering the growth of Electronic Commerce (EC). It is reported by many studies that a large number of online shoppers abandon their transactions because they do not trust the website when they are asked to provide personal information. To support trust, we developed an information framework model based on research on EC trust. The model is based on the information a consumer expects to find on an EC website and that is shown from the literature to increase his/her trust towards online merchants. An information extraction system is then developed to help the user find this information. In this paper, we present the development of the information extraction system and its evaluation. This is then followed by a study looking at the use of the identified variables on a sample of EC websites