SWP 2002 / 05 Trust on the World Wide Web : A Study of Consumer Perception

Increasing use of the World Wide Web as a B2C commercial tool raises interest in understanding the key issues in building relationships with customers on the Internet; among them, trust is believed to be the key to the relationship. Given the differences between a virtual and a conventional marketplace, antecedents and consequences of trust merit re-examination. This research identifies a number of key factors related to trust in the B2C context and proposes a framework based on a series of underpinning relationships among these factors. The findings in this research, based on the useful responses of 80 respondents to an Internet survey questionnaire, suggest that people are more likely to purchase from the web if they perceive a higher degree of trust in e-commerce and have more experience in using the web. Customers’ trust level is likely to be influenced by the level of perceived market orientation, site quality, technical trustworthiness, and users’ web experience. People with a higher level of perceived site quality seem to have a higher level of perceived market orientation and trustworthiness towards ecommerce. Furthermore, people with a higher level of trust in e-commerce are more likely to participate in e-commerce. In addition, the findings suggest that people tend to be more concerned with financial, physical and time risk than social and psychological risk. Positive ‘word of mouth’, money back warranty and partnership with a well-known business partner, ranked as the top three effective risk reduction tactics. These findings compliment the previous finding on ecommerce and shed light on how to establish a trust relationship on the World Wide Web.