Trust in Online Prescription Filling

This paper examines the impact of trust and uncertainty on online prescription filling. Drawing on prior research in consumer trust and theory of transaction cost economics, this paper proposes a research model to investigate the precedents of trust, the sources of uncertainty, and their relationships with the consumer’s intention to adopt online prescription filling. The model was empirically tested using a large sample. It is found that (1) calculative, knowledge-based, and institutional antecedents of trust significantly affect trust, (2) information asymmetry and online drug retailers’ opportunistic behavior contribute to perceived uncertainty of online prescription filling, (3) trust reduces uncertainty and positively affects intention, and (4) uncertainty has a negative influence on intention. A major contribution of this paper is that the understanding of trust on consumer intention is augmented by including uncertainty and its sources explicitly in the research model.