Elsevier

Information & Management

Volume 42, Issue 1, December 2004, Pages 159-177
Information & Management

Psychological antecedents of institution-based consumer trust in e-retailing

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2003.12.009Get rights and content

Abstract

Online trust is one of the main determinants of the success of e-retailers and much research has dealt with website features triggering consumer trust to them. Another stream of research focuses on the psychological antecedents to online trust; i.e., what “happens” in the consumer’s mind before or while a person decides to trust an e-retailer? So far, each effort has focused on only a few selected aspects of this trust formation process. No study has attempted to identify major psychological antecedents of trust. Our work identified the relative importance of the antecedents of institution-based trust in e-retailing; i.e., trust people have in it in general. A review of the literature reveals a large number of potential psychological antecedents. These can be categorized into five group of factors: personality-based, perception-based, attitude-based, experience-based, and knowledge-based. The five categories are hypothesized to influence institution-based consumer trust in e-retailing. According to our results, perception based factors are the main determinants of consumer trust in e-retailing. Consumers do behave, after all, rationally.

Introduction

The Internet has made it possible to conduct business-to-consumer transactions across an open network [19], but although it has many benefits it also raises many concerns. Currently the most important ones with respect to e-commerce and e-retailing are security, privacy, and consumer protection issues. The preoccupation with these has resulted in the fact that the current dimensions of e-commerce and e-retailing are still smaller than expected [10], [27].

These can all be reduced to consumers’ lack of trust in e-retailing [16], [26]. Trust is central to any commercial transaction, whether conducted in the conventional way (in a retail outlet) or over the Internet (by means of a website). Trust can trigger increased purchasing to the extent that it reduces the complexity and perceived risks of purchasing [23], [45]. Therefore, only if the consumer trusts the retailer will he or she feel comfortable when purchasing a product, giving personal information, and using payment methods other than cash. In brief, trust increases the probability of (re)purchase. Without consumer trust, e-retailing will never reach its full economic potential [18].

Only recently has research on factors influencing consumer trust in e-retailing been conducted [32]. Most has been on the effects of situational factors; i.e., the design of the website and the use of brand names or trust seals [17], [33], [37], [38], [47], [50], [51], [52], [54], [55]. So far, no study has attempted to identify what the consumer thinks before or while deciding to trust; i.e., what are the psychological determinants of trust in e-retailing?

Trust is much more important in an online situation than in an offline situation. Online, the parties do not have direct physical contact and the product cannot be seen or touched. The buyer does not even know if the retailer actually owns the product and the seller cannot always be sure that payment will be received. In fact neither partner can be sure. In a brick-and-mortar shop, the customer can see and try out the product, pay, and leave owning the product. The seller can check the customer’s payment immediately. Thus, trust is generally not necessary. In the online relationship, however, no sale would be made without at least some trust.

Trust, according to Rousseau, is defined as: “…a psychological state comprising the intention to accept vulnerability based upon positive expectations of the intentions or behavior of another” [53].

This definition depicts trust as a mindset, which encourages a person to take risk because of positive expectations. But, how exactly are these positive expectations formed? Is trust determined by a person’s personality or is a more cognitive, perception-based explanation appropriate? Is trust also the acquired knowledge of prior experience with e-retailing? Here an attempt to identify the set of psychological antecedents of consumer trust in e-retailing is made. A study on the multidimensional nature of trust has identified institution-based trust as an antecedent to trusting beliefs [41]. For reasons of simplification, when the term (consumer) trust is used here, institution-based consumer trust is implied.

Section snippets

Psychological antecedents of consumer trust in e-retailing

The psychological factors that have an influence on trust in general must first be identified but because there is no comprehensive theory, several theories are combined here to form a more complete picture of factors influencing trust. To simplify this we have grouped the antecedents into five categories:

  • 1.

    personality-based factors;

  • 2.

    perception-based factors;

  • 3.

    experience-based factors;

  • 4.

    knowledge-based factors; and

  • 5.

    attitude.

These are split up into several factors. Fig. 1 depicts the hypothesized

Research methodology

The design of the study is empirical and confirmatory. A paper questionnaire was distributed in a classroom setting to a sample of US students.

Results of regression analyses

The results of the regression analysis of model 1 showed six statistically significant factors, three at α=0.01 and three at α=0.05. These are: reputation, word-of-mouth, information from friends and relatives, perceived investment, perceived similarity, and perceived control (Table 1).

The F-ratio of regression model 1 is 11.03 and statistically significant (P<0.01). The R square adjusted of the regression is 0.72.

From the regression analysis in Table 2 it becomes clear that model 2 contains

Discussion and conclusion

Personality, perception, attitude, experience and knowledge were hypothesized to have an influence on determining institution-based consumer trust in e-retailing. A comprehensive survey analyzed which of these factors predicted consumer trust in e-retailing. An overview of the factors that were found to have a significant influence on consumer trust in e-retailing is shown in Fig. 3.

When analyzing reasons for consumer trust in e-retailing, consumers seem to make their decision to trust an

Rita M. Walczuch is an associate professor of information management at the Department of Accounting and Information Management at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration of Maastricht University, the Netherlands. She received her PhD from the University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA. Her research interests include consumer trust in e-retailing, cross-cultural media choice, productivity of ICT, and social effects of Internet use.

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    Rita M. Walczuch is an associate professor of information management at the Department of Accounting and Information Management at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration of Maastricht University, the Netherlands. She received her PhD from the University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA. Her research interests include consumer trust in e-retailing, cross-cultural media choice, productivity of ICT, and social effects of Internet use.

    Henriette Lundgren graduated from Maastricht University with a master in international business studies in 2003. During her studies, she conducted several research projects in the field of e-commerce and Internet adoption. Next to that, she has worked for international companies in Germany, Italy and Hong Kong. She currently is a management trainee at Unilever PLC in England.

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