Proposing the Affect-Trust Infusion Model (ATIM) to Explain and Predict the Influence of High- and Low-Affect Infusion on Web Vendor Trust

Trust is just as essential to online business as it is to offline transactions but can be more difficult to achieve-especially for newer websites with unknown web vendors. Research on web-based trust development explains that web vendor trust can be created by both cognitive and affective (e.g., emotion-based) influences. But under what circumstances will emotion or cognition be more dominate in trust establishment? Theory-based answers to these questions can help online web vendors design better websites that account for unleveraged factors that will increase trust in the web vendor. To this end, we use the Affect Infusion Model and trust transference to propose the Affect-Trust Infusion Model (ATIM) that explains and predicts how and when cognition, through perceived website performance (PwP), and positive emotion (PEmo) each influence web vendor trust. ATIM explains the underlying causal mechanisms that determine the degree of affect infusion and the subsequent processing strategy that a user adopts when interacting with a new website. Under high-affect infusion, PEmo acts as a mediator between PwP and vendor trust; under low-affect infusion, PwP primarily impacts trust and PEmo is dis-intermediated. We review two distinct, rigorously validated experiments that empirically support ATIM. To further extend the contributions of ATIM, we demonstrate how use of specific contextual features-rooted in theory and that drive one\u27s choice of affect infusion and cognitive processing-can be leveraged into a methodology that we propose to further enhance user-centered design (UCD). We further detail several exciting research opportunities that can leverage ATIM

Essays on the Influence of Website Emotional Design Features on Users' Emotional and Behavioral Responses

As the Internet technologies have become more advanced, as well as online users that have become more sophisticated, the competition in the e-commerce is increasingly aggressive for online vendors. Therefore, online user experience has emerged as a major issue in developing strategies for online vendors to gain advantage over such changing competitive landscape. Although past studies have widely explored the online user experience, they largely focus on the website design feature (designer) perspective and often ignore the user perspective. Considering both design feature and user perspectives, this research provides a better understanding how different website design features enhance user experience.Three essays are conducted in this dissertation to address the importance of website design features in influencing user experience. The first essay explores how website visual appeal and ease of use impact users' perceptions of usefulness, trust, and intention to use in the context of unfamiliar website. The study reveals that visual appeal produces a greater influence on the users' perceptions than ease of use. The findings also indicate that both visual appeal and ease of use are contributing factors in developing online trust among male users, with visual appeal dominating trust formation among female users.The second essay investigates how website visual order and complexity influence users' initial aesthetic impressions of a website, and how these impressions subsequently impact engagement and intention to use the website. An experiment is conducted to test the durability of the visual design features across two exposure times (1-second vs. no time limit). The results suggest that user can quickly evaluate websites (within 1 second), and these evaluations remain consistent even when time constraints are removed. In addition, the findings also reveal the importance of visual order on user attention span and attention on design elements presented on web pages.The third essay examines how individual differences in the centrality of visual aesthetics (CVA) influence users' perceptions of a website. A series of three experiments is conducted in this study to provide guidelines how to capture CVA, as well as how CVA subsequently influence users' response toward a websiteManagement Science & Information Systems (PhD

Form and Function: How Website Characteristics Impact User Behavior

This research aims to investigate the effects of website elements, visual appeal and ease of use, as central factors in websitetrust formation and subsequent behaviors. Drawing on existing theories and empirical findings in psychology, informationsystems, and human-computer interaction literature, a research model is developed and proposed to explain the relationshipsamong website visual appeal and its ease of use with trust, perceived usefulness, and intention to purchase. To gather data, anonline experiment was conducted to test the proposed model and hypotheses. The findings of the study reveal that eventhough both website visual appeal and ease of use are significant determinants for website trust, visual appeal produces amuch stronger impact

Assessing User Perceptions of Trust and Security in Manipulated Versions of Low Trust and High Trust Tourism Websites

The aim of this study was to investigate how perceptions of security and trust are involved in user evaluations of tourism websites and whether manipulations to heighten or lessen trust features could predict trust perceptions. Seven websites were manipulated to produce low and high trust versions, with the original used as a control version. Four trust manipulations were used based on the literature: level of currency, credibility, craftsmanship and trust logos. Fifty-six participants viewed one version of each website for 6 seconds and submitted an immediate rating of trust for each site. Following this, an 11-item self-report measure was completed for each website, to collect more considered perceptions of trust, appeal, security and usability. Self-perception measures of trust disposition and concern for information privacy were also collected. The analyses showed that the presence or absence of trust features reliably led to higher and lower perceptions of trust respectively. Also, those scoring higher on trust disposition gave higher trust ratings. We conclude that websites can be reliably designed to engender more or less perceived trust, however individual differences need to be considered. This preliminary research is limited by studying just four factors and further research is needed to manipulate other website features

A meta-analysis of online trust : examining main and moderating effects

textThe purpose of this study was (1) to conduct a meta-analysis on the antecedents and consequences of online trust; (2) to test for seven moderating variables involving online trust; and (3) to use the pooled correlation matrix to fit the research model. The data for the meta-analytic procedure involved 120 papers reporting 150 independent studies. Results showed statistically significant relationships involving online trust and its various antecedents (e.g., perceived security) and consequences (e.g., behavioral intention). The relationships were heterogeneous across studies and the variances for the reported effect sizes were partially explained by certain methodological characteristics. The meta-analytic structural equation modeling analysis indicated that online trust mediates the effect of various antecedents on behavioral intention. A discussion of results, implications, limitations, and future research is provided.Informatio

Essays on Privacy Perceptions and Privacy Behaviors of Online Shoppers

Information privacy in e-commerce is tied to concrete situations of information exchange. Current studies on information privacy in e-commerce primarily focus on the impact of privacy concern as a general personal trait, ignoring the potential influence of various situational factors such as emotions, Web site design, and information requested, among others. This dissertation investigates the impacts of such situation-specific factors on online shoppers' privacy perceptions and privacy behaviors when they are interacting with unfamiliar Web sites. These impacts are viewed through two different lenses; an affect-based lens and a cognition-based lens.The results of this dissertation suggest that situational factors are more important than general privacy concern in shaping salient privacy beliefs and privacy decisions when consumers are immersed in interactions with Web sites. Specifically, we found that initial emotions formed based on overall Web site impression have a lasting coloring effect on later stage cognitive processing of information exchange. During information exchange, online shoppers conduct a cost-benefit tradeoff analysis. The information disclosure is found to be the result of competing influences of exchange benefits and two types of privacy beliefs (privacy protection belief and privacy risk belief). The attractiveness of the products or services, together with high privacy protection belief could override the influence of privacy risks and result in high behavioral intention to disclose personal information. Additionally, the cost-benefit tradeoff analysis is further adjusted by the exchange fairness. Fairness-based levers (relevance of information collected and privacy policy) could enhance privacy protection belief and reduce privacy risk belief. The effect of monetary awards is also dependent upon the exchange fairness (relevance of information collected), which could undermine information disclosure when information collected has low relevance to the purpose of the transaction. Future studies on information privacy may need to consider these situation-specific factors. Social contract theory provides a useful theoretical foundation to study information disclosure in the conventional e-commerce marketplace.Department of Management Science & Information Systems (PhD

A social commerce investigation of the role of trust in a social networking site on purchase intentions

Trust is a crucial issue in online shopping environments, but it is more important in social commerce platforms due to the salient role of peer-generated contents. This article investigates the relationship between trust in social commerce and purchase intentions and describes a mechanism to explain this relationship. We propose a main and two alternative models by drawing on three concepts: social commerce information seeking, familiarity with the platform, and social presence. The models clarify the mechanisms through which trust, familiarity, social presence, and social commerce information seeking influence behavioral intentions on social commerce platforms. Findings from a survey of Facebook users indicate that trust in a social networking site (SNS) increases information seeking which in turn increases familiarity with the platform and the sense of social presence. Moreover, familiarity and social presence increase purchases intentions. Findings indicate that the main model fits the data better than the alternative ones. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed

THE IMPACT OF RELIGIOSITY ON INTERPERSONAL TRUST IN B2C CONTEXT: A CROSS-CULTURE ANALYSIS

Religion has long been playing a significant role in influencing human behavior. However, its business value as a predictor of buyer behavior has not been sufficiently examined in e-commerce context. The main contribution of this paper is to show the connection between the degree of religiosity and interpersonal trust (cognitive and affect-based trust) in Business to-Consumer (B2C) e-commerce. The study uses responses obtained from a convenient sample from Muslims and Christians in two different societies, Pakistan and Australia respectively. The data of the survey were analyzed using Partial Least Square (PLS) approach. The results indicate that interpersonal trust related to religiosity in a web-based retailer can vary with culture, at least as represented by affiliation to a religion. It is suggested that religiosity should be considered as possible determinant of trust in online shopping in the future