Reflections on the dimensions of trust and trustworthiness among online consumers

Trust is emerging as a potentially central aspect leading to IT acceptance. It is especially needed in the case of gaining and later retaining consumers of online vendors. This has been shown by previous research using single dimensional constructs. But trust can also be viewed as a multi-dimensiona...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inACM SIGMIS Database: the DATABASE for Advances in Information Systems Vol. 33; no. 3; pp. 38 - 53
Main Author Gefen, David
Format Journal Article Trade Publication Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York, NY, USA ACM 29.08.2002
ACM-SIGMIS
Subjects
Applied computing
Behavior
Consumer behavior
Consumers
Data integrity
Electronic commerce
Honesty
Human computer interaction (HCI)
Human-centered computing
Shopping
Studies
Trust
World Wide Web
trust
trustworthiness
integrity
trust scales
world wide web
ability
benevolence
electronic commerce
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ISSN0095-0033
1532-0936
1532-0936
DOI10.1145/569905.569910

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Summary:Trust is emerging as a potentially central aspect leading to IT acceptance. It is especially needed in the case of gaining and later retaining consumers of online vendors. This has been shown by previous research using single dimensional constructs. But trust can also be viewed as a multi-dimensional construct combining specific beliefs (sometimes labeled as trustworthiness) that either directly or through an overall assessment of trust influence relevant behavioral intentions. To show the need to examine trust in a multi-dimensional perspective, this study proposes a three-dimensional scale of trustworthiness dealing with integrity, benevolence, and ability in the unique case of online consumer trust, and then shows the importance of examining the effects of each dimension individually. The data show that trustworthiness and trust should not be regarded as a single construct with a single effect. Rather, different beliefs influence different consumer activity intentions. Window-shopping intentions was affected by the ability-trustworthiness of the vendor, while overall trust in the vendor and its integrity-trustworthiness affected purchase intentions. The importance of differentiating among online customer activities and what dimensions of trustworthiness affect each is discussed.
ISSN:0095-0033
1532-0936
1532-0936
DOI:10.1145/569905.569910