Trust on the World Wide Web: A Study of Consumer Perceptions

Brian J.Corbitt
School of Information Systems
Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia
bcorbitt@deakin.edu.au
Ph: +61 3 92446266

Theerasak Thanasankit
School of Information Management and Systems,
Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.
theerasak.thanasankit@sims.monash.edu.au
Ph: +61 3 99032404

Han Yi
School of Information Management
Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
Yi.Han@vuw.ac.nz

Abstract
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. Trust is
believed to be the key to these relationships. 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 levels are 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 e-commerce. Furthermore, people with a higher level of trust in e-commerce are
more likely to participate in e-commerce. Positive word of mouth, money back warranty and
partnerships with well-known business partners, rank as the top three effective risk reduction
tactics. These findings complement the previous findings on e-commerce and shed light on
how to establish a trust relationship on the World Wide Web.

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Introduction

The Internet has become an essential business platform for trading, distributing and selling
products between organisations, among organisations and consumers, and even between
consumers. This has brought e-commerce to an entirely new level (Barnes and Vidgen, 2000,
Berners-Lee, 1999), building on the role of EFT and EDI in the past (Stalling, 1990; Roth
1997, Tucker 1997). One important concept in the relationship-marketing paradigm related to
the development of this B2C e-Commerce is trust. Trust is a fundamental principle of every
business relationship (Hart, 1997). As Quelch and Klein (1996) noted, trust is a critical factor
in stimulating purchases over the Internet. Keen (1997) argues that the most significant long-
term barrier for realising the potential of Internet marketing to consumers was the lack of
consumer trust, both in the merchants honesty and in the merchants competence to fill
Internet orders.

Trust has a vital influence on consumer activities and thereby on e-commerce success.
Ganesan (1994) builds the notion of trust leading to a causal function: trust is responsible for
creating consumer activity. Jarvenpaa, Tractinsky and Vitale (2000) argue that online retailers
might increase consumer trust and thereby increase the willingness of prospective customers
to shop on the Internet. CommerceNets report (1999) suggests that trust is the third of the ten
top barriers and inhibitors to e-commerce. Hart (1997) argues that trust has a changing and
evolving dynamic. The introduction of technology challenges the current trust relationship,
thus causing it to be redefined or renegotiated.

The advent of the Internet and electronic commerce, however, changed the pace and scale of
commercial evolution so radically that existing processes for building new trust models for
new markets have been unable to keep pace and in many cases are inappropriate for new e-
commerce markets. To date, considerable effort has been invested in examining the trust issue
in e-commerce, primarily on privacy and security (Dutton, 2000), site attributes and trust
(Jarvenpaa, Tractinsky and Vitale, 2000, Tan, 1999), and trust and e-commerce participation
and adoption (Ratnasingham and Kmar, 2000, Kim and Prabhakar, 2000). This paper is
complementary to these existing perspectives and explores the trust relationship in the online
B2C retail context. Trust is the centre of online customer relationships. To address the role of
trust in e-Commerce, this study has tried to answer two key questions: What factors influence
the level of trust in the Internet? And how does trust influence participation in e-commerce?

Modelling trust in B2C eCommerce

In the relationship marketing paradigm, trust is generally viewed as an essential ingredient for
a successful relationship (Berry, 1995; Dwyer, Schurr, and Oh 1987; Moorman, Deshpande,
and Zaltman, 1993, Morgan and Hunt 1994). Moorman, Deshpande, and Zaltman, (1993,
p.82) define trust as a willingness to rely on an exchange partner in whom one has confidence.
Morgan and Hunt (1994) define trust as the perception of confidence in the exchange
partners reliability and integrity. Both definitions highlight the importance of confidence
and reliability in the concept of trust. In the context of studying consumer trust on the Internet,
Jarvenpaa, Tractinsky and Vitale (2000) note that trust is a critical factor in any relationship in
which the trustor does not have direct control over the actions of a trustee (e.g. merchant or
store). The decision is important and the environment is uncertain. The most complete
definition so far is given by Hosmer (1995), who defines trust as the expectation that the other

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parties will behave in accordance with commitments, negotiate honestly, and not take
advantage, even when opportunity arises. This definition is more appropriate due to its
applicability to virtual transaction based e-commerce.

Trust is characterised by uncertainty, vulnerability, and dependence (Badach and Eccles,

1989). These characteristics are reflected in an online transaction, where customers cannot see
the seller face to face, physically examine the merchandise, or collect the merchandise upon
payment. The expectation of getting the right delivery is based on belief in the merchants
technical competence, goodwill and past experience with the merchant due to the fact that
both regulatory and technical systems of B2C e-commerce are far from perfect.

According to social exchange theory (Thibaut and Kelley, 1959), people form exchange
relationships on the basis of trust. Exchange relationships that are likely to cost more than the
potential reward will be avoided. On the Internet, customers typically perceive higher risk
compared to a conventional shopping environment (Tan, 1999), as a result of distance, virtual
identity, and lack of regulation. Therefore trust is the preliminary condition to consumers e-
commerce participation.

Balance theory (Heider, 1958) posits that people tend to develop a positive attitude toward
those with whom they have some prior association. The more experienced the Internet user,
the greater the opportunity they have had to prior association with e-commerce web sites, then
the more positive attitude they will develop towards e-commerce. Therefore, users web
experience can be argued to be positively related to trust.

The theory of reasoned action (Ajzen, and Fishein, 1980) and theory of planed behaviour
(Ajzen 1991 and Ajzen, 1985) assert that behaviour is influenced by behavioural intention and
that intention is determined by attitude. Attitude mediates between belief and intention,
although belief can also have a direct effect on intention. Perceived site quality, technical
trustworthiness and marketing orientation can be considered as attitude and therefore will
have a positive effect on customers trust intention. Conversely, negative attitudes towards
perceived risk can have a negative effect on customers trust intention, and trust intention may
positively influence participation behaviour.

Trust is a critical factor for consumers patronage behaviour. Successful e-commerce web
sites are those which could invoke consumers trust and lower consumers risk perception
through marketing activities and technology improvements. Compared with its function in the
conventional market, technology is much more important for the online market, for it is the
vehicle for marketing concept with the absence of a salesperson. The appearances, the
functionality and the service quality performed by an electronic storefront are a direct result
of the technical design, which is backed up by marketing and business strategies. Therefore,
the importance of both marketing orientation and technical trustworthiness in relation to trust
on the web is vital.

Market orientation is essentially a managerial philosophy, which takes the customer as a focal
point for business activities and considers profit as a consequence of customer orientation
(King, 1965, Barksdale and Darden, 1971 and McNamara, 1972; Bell and Emory, 1971).
Information collection and usage started to be considered as governing determinants to the
organisations market orientation in the 1980s (Shapiro, 1988). Using this definition in the
B2C e-commerce context, market orientation is likely to increase the level of trust since the e-
commerce web sites will: (1) collect the customers information dynamically to follow

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customers preference from time to time; (2) use the information to customise
product/services to cater to the individual customers taste on a one-to-one basis rather than
mass marketing; (3) maintain close contact with customers and respond to customers
problems in real time; and (4) allow customers to contribute to the site development.
Carnevale and Wechsler (1992) found that open communication and the opportunity to
participate are necessary conditions for a market orientation. Therefore, a positive relationship
between market orientation and trust is proposed.

H1: Perceived market orientation is positively related to the level of customers trust
perception; and
H2. Perceived market orientation is positively related to the level of customers e-commerce
participation.

Trustworthiness of the technology supporting the e-commerce transaction is of vital

importance to consumers trust. The more customers count on the online services, that is, the
more they view it as a trusted relationship, the greater the trusted premium that best practice
companies will command and the greater the corresponding erosion of trust for those with
poor IT operations. A cognitive state of trust can be viewed as a composite of benevolence
(belief in the intentional goodwill of another person) and credibility (disbelief in the
unintentional ill-well of another person) (Doney and Cannon, 1997). An interactive
communication technology demonstrates benevolence by enforcing the trust perception about
partners dependability with actual evidence from their partners behaviour (Berschied and
Reis, 1997). Hence, it is posited that:

H.3. Perceived technology trustworthiness is positively related to level of perceived trust, and
H.4 Perceived technology trustworthiness is negatively related to the level of perceived risk

Hoffman et al, (1999) suggest that the negative perception of security and privacy increases
with increasing level of online proficiency. However, the level of factors of not shopping
online also decreases as online skill increases. In essence, the more experiences one acquires
on the web, the less important the functional barriers to online shopping, and the more
concerns over security and privacy issues. Dutton (1999) posits that factors such as no
perceived need, no interest, and no knowledge of how to shop online, contribute to the
reasons of choosing to shop in a store rather than online. Therefore, more web experience will
likely bring more reasons for customers to shop online. Since privacy and security are also
frequently discussed on the Internet, on-line surfers are also exposed more to such issues;
therefore they form a higher risk perception on of Internet commerce than those who are
seldom on-line. It will be interesting to investigate how such a contradiction may affect
customers participation in e-commerce. It is proposed that:

H5. Users web experience is positively related to e-commerce participation,

H6. Users web experience is positively related to the degree of perceived trust, and
H7 Users web experience is negatively related to the degree of perceived risk.

Web site quality is important for web sites to gain competitive advantages over other web
sites and attract more customers (Barnes and Vidgen 2000). While a salesperson is generally
absent or peripheral to the settings of the e-commerce web site, the primary object of trust
becomes the organisation itself (Javenpaa et al, 2000). The organisations image reflected by
its site is hence critical to customers perceived level of trust. Quality perception has proven
to be associated with risk perception (e.g. Clow and Baack, and Fogliasso, 1998, Erdem,

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1998). Javenpaa et al (2000) argue that a larger site may be perceived to be more reputable,
for the larger stores might have been around longer and that might increase the chance that a
consumer has had prior experience with the merchant in other channels or has heard of the
merchant in that context.

A lack of technology reliability can cause customers to lose trust in e-commerce, and
technology quality is also a reflection of the web sites substantiality as most advanced e-
commerce solutions do not come cheaply and can be easily affordable by small sites.
Therefore technology can be used as a hint for customers who seek support for their trust or
distrust perception of e-commerce web sites. Hence, it is hypothesised that:

H8 Perceived site quality is positively related to trust, and

H9. Perceived site quality is positively related to marketing orientation.
H10. Perceived site quality is positively related to technology trustworthiness.

Tan (1999) suggests that consumers perceive Internet shopping to be of higher risk than in-
store shopping. Risk perception is interwoven with trust (McAllister, 1995). As trust in a store
has been found to positively impact on consumers behaviour, Jarvenpaa and Todd (1996)
argue that because trust reduces the perceived risk of being mistreated by the store, a low
perception of risk negatively influences the attitudinal orientation of consumers toward the
store. Consumers may be concerned about the image projected by their on-line purchase
behaviour. Whereas on-line shopping is not as common as in-store shopping, on-line purchase
behaviour may be perceived as a deviation from social norms. It can be posited that: H11.
Risk perception is negatively associated with trust perception.

The theory of reasoned action and theory of planned behaviour posit that behaviour is
influenced by intention to behave and intention is determined by the actors attitude towards
the behaviour (Knight, Choudhury, and Kacmar (2000); Kim and Prabhakar (2000). Active
trust will influence intentions to shop on-line and eventually will lead to on-line purchase
behaviour. Thus: H12 Trust is positively associated with e-commerce participation.

The interrelationships of these propositions when built into the research framework suggest
more detail for the research model (Fig 1).

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 Online B2C Trust Model

Participation
in
H2 (+) E-commerce H5 (+)

Market H12 (+) Users Web

Orientation Experience
H1 (+) H6 (+)

Trust
H7 (-)
H8 (+)
H9 (+) H11 (-)

Perceived
Perceived
Site Quality
H3 (+) Risk

H10 (+) H4 (-)

Technical
Trustworthine
ss

Figure 1. Research Model with hypothesis indicators

Study Method
To assess the research model in Figure 1, a self-administered survey approach was used to
collect data from Internet users in New Zealand and China. A survey questionnaire was put up
to collect the information via the Internet. The participants were recruited through email
invitations, which are embedded with the survey web site URL. The School of Information
Management at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand hosted the survey web site.

The survey web site was made up of web pages. The actual questionnaire consisted of 74
questions in three sections. A home page served as an information sheet to inform the
participants about the survey purpose and questionnaire length. No incentive was offered to
induce survey response. As noted by Best, Krueger, Hubbard and Smith (2001) in their
research on generalisability of Internet surveys, current Internet sampling techniques only
permit the generation of diverse, not representative samples. A diversified sample was
adopted in this research to mitigate the potential sample bias. Survey invitations were sent out
mainly to students at Victoria University of Wellington by email while a snow-ball sampling
method was used to recruit Chinese respondents. About a third of the respondents who
answered the questionnaire on-line were from countries other than New Zealand. (Detailed
survey participant profiles are in Table 1)

Due to the low cost associated with conducting a survey on the web, invitations were able to
be sent to all email addresses (saturated sampling) that could be collected without any

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restrictions to maximally target the whole interested population, therefore reducing the risk of
sampling bias. Another advantage experienced by doing the survey on the Web was that an
Internet shopper must be an Internet user to start with. The Web survey method is a natural
filter to exclude responses from ineligible respondents, people who dont have access to the
Internet. Further, the survey also benefited from automatic data transfer from the web to the
database without bothering with data entry and check. One predominant problem with such a
sampling method is that there is no known sample frame and thus the response rate could not
be calculated to provide a clue on how representative the sample is of the whole population.
Also, since no personal information is collected, non-respondents were not traceable. Given
the exploratory nature of this study, such a sampling method suits the research purpose.

Altogether, the on-line survey generated 80 valid responses. The overall users Internet
experience is rather high compared with the general on-line population due to the
characteristics of the university student sample. Nearly all the respondents have more than
one years Internet experience with over half of them having used the Internet for more than 3
years. A great majority (87.5%) use the Internet for more than 3 hours per week. Slightly over
half of the respondents perceive themselves more experienced with the Internet and less than
70% mainly access the Internet from home. Interestingly, the main purposes for using the
Internet are dominated by two: searching information (63.8%) and communication (27.5%).
Only 5% of respondents report that they use the Internet mainly for shopping and 2% for
entertainment.

Experience with Internet purchasing is fairly low in the sample, however it is consistent with
most Internet commerce literature. About half rarely purchase from the Internet (n<=1). Over
half have not spent more than US$500 and more than 5% of their total purchase from the
Internet. Over half of the respondents estimate that their Internet purchase will increase over
the next two years. About half of the respondents household income exceeds US$20,000 and
65% have educational qualifications equivalent to bachelor degrees or higher. 68.8% of
respondents are from New Zealand and 31.2% respondents are from countries like China,
Malaysia, and Japan. Credit card is the major Internet payment method.

Data Analysis
Altogether seven factors were proposed, namely users web experience, market orientation,
technology trustworthiness, trust, perceived risk, participation in e-commerce and perceived
site quality. Given the exploratory nature of the research, 0.6 was chosen as cut point for the
reliability test. All 7 factors alpha are higher than 0.6. Given the exploratory nature of the
research, the scales are considered reliable (See Table 1).
No. of Cases Alpha Std. Item Alpha

Users Web Experience 76 .6107 .6067

Market Orientation 71 .6514 .6599
Technology Trust Worthiness 75 .6395 .6473
Trust 73 .7484 .7560
Perceived Risk 70 .7942 .7972
Participation in E-commerce 59 .7965 .7992
Perceived Site Quality 73 .6581 .6637
Table 1. Reliability Test Result of Model Variables

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 Initially 12 hypotheses have been proposed about trust. Correlation tests were used to find out
the relationships among the variables in the model. These are shown in Table 2.

UWE MO TTW TRUST PR PE

Variable 1 2 3 4 5 6
no.
UWE Pearson
Correlation
Sig. (2-tailed)
N
MO Pearson 0.25*
Correlation
Sig. (2-tailed) 0.04
N 67.00
TTW Pearson 0.28* 0.46**
Correlation
Sig. (2-tailed) 0.02 0.00
N 72.00 69.00
TRUST Pearson 0.24* 0.25* 0.51**
Correlation
Sig. (2-tailed) 0.05 0.05 0.00
N 71.00 67.00 72.00
PR Pearson -0.07 -0.11 -0.15 -0.08
Correlation
Sig. (2-tailed) 0.59 0.37 0.20 0.50
N 66.00 64.00 69.00 68.00
PE Pearson 0.42** 0.09 0.13 0.26* -0.05
Correlation
Sig. (2-tailed) 0.00 0.51 0.33 0.05 0.74
N 57.00 57.00 59.00 58.00 55.00
PSQ Pearson 0.26* 0.30** 0.37** 0.46** -0.06 0.22
Correlation
Sig. (2-tailed) 0.03 0.01 0.00 0.00 0.62 0.09
N 69.00 66.00 71.00 69.00 68.00 58.00
Bold letter: Correlation significant at 0.10 level
* : Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).
**: Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
Table 2 Correlations between Model Variables

The first hypothesis proposed a positive relationship between market orientation and trust.
The correlation test did return a significant correlation coefficient of 0.25 (p<=0.05),
suggesting that a higher level of market orientation is actually related to a higher level of trust,
therefore H1 is supported by the data.

The second hypothesis proposed that market orientation should be positively associated with
e-commerce participation. However, the correlation test did not support this hypothesis by
returning a statistically significant test result. Therefore, H2 was not supported. It seems that a
higher perceived market orientation is not necessarily linked with customers patronage
behaviour. While many explanations could explain this result, the one proposed is that due to
the early stage of e-commerce development, a majority of customers are still getting used to

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the idea of shopping on-line. The effect of perceived market orientation on e-commerce may
be further complicated by some other reasons, such as trust in e-commerce and perceived risk.

The third hypothesis suggested a positive relationship between trust and technical
trustworthiness. This hypothesis is strongly supported by a Pearson correlation coefficient
0.51 (p<0.01). However, the fourth hypothesis was rejected by a non-significant p value. It
can be explained that perceived risk, although partly related to the technology, is also closely
related to other aspects like the financial cost, performance of the product and delivery time,
which are not so much affected by the technology itself. Therefore a higher level of trust in
technology will not necessarily correlate to a reduced level of risk perception.

The fifth, sixth and seventh hypothesis were concerned with the users web experience. The
fifth hypothesis is supported by the data (B=0.42 p<.01), indicating that, as predicted, there is
a strong positive correlation between users web experience and e-commerce participation.
The more experienced Internet users tend to purchase more from the Web. Data analysis also
indicates that more experienced Internet users tend to have a higher level of trust in e-
commerce (B=0.24 p<0.05), therefore H6 is also supported.

H7 was not statistically supported. It appears that although users web experience may lead to
a higher level of trust, it may not lead to a lower level of perceived risk. This finding suggests
that somehow, users web experience may not have a great impact on users risk perception
on e-commerce. Although some users may be more exposed to the positive side more than the
negative side of e-commerce, it is highly suspected there is equal chance to see it go the other
way around. Therefore the users web experience may not make much difference on the users
perceived risk level.

Perceived site quality is proposed to be positively related to the level of perceived market
orientation (H8), trust (H9) and technical trustworthiness (H10). All three hypotheses are
strongly supported by the data, suggesting that web site quality is a very important factor,
which helps to enhance customers favourable attitude to e-commerce web sites in terms of
perceived customer orientation (B= 0.31 p<0.05), trust (B= 0.46 p<0.01) and technical
trustworthiness (B= 0.37 p<0.01). Therefore, web site quality may actually be very closely
related to the marketing purposes and, as expected, have a big impact on marketing objectives.

Finally, H11 proposes that there is a positive relationship between perceived risk and trust.
However, this is not supported as the correlation was very low and insignificant. So it
virtually contradicts the idea that risk is the natural opposite of trust. What this seems to
suggest is that risk and trust are not necessarily linked at least in the context of B2C
commerce. Therefore, H11 is not supported.

H12 proposes that there is a positive relationship between trust and e-commerce. H12 is
supported by the data (B=0.26, p<.05). It can be assumed that a higher level of trust will lead
to a higher level of e-commerce participation. Therefore, trust is considered an important
factor in e-commerce participation.

A further examination using linear regression on the predictable factors and dependent
variable trust was performed. Marketing orientation, perceived site quality, technical
trustworthiness, perceived risk, and user experience are used as predictors of trust. The
regression model was statistically significant (df=5 F=7.943 p< .01) and could explain 43% of
the variance of trust (R square value is 0.43). Among the five predictors, technical

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trustworthiness and perceived site quality are found to be strong predictors of trust.
Coefficient of technical trustworthiness was 0.343 (p<.01), and coefficient of perceived site
quality was 0.301 (p<.01). Model constant was 1.514 (p<.01). There was no strong support
for other predictors. It seems that technical trustworthiness and site quality are the most
important predictors of trust.

On the other hand, it was predicted that trust, along with users web experience and market
orientation, is a predictor of participation in e-commerce. The regression model again is
supported by the data (the model was significant at 0.01 level). Users web experience was
found to be the strongest predictor of the three with coefficient of 0.441(p< .01). However,
although trust has a high co-efficient of 0.341, it is not supported by the p value (0 .236).
Market orientation was found to be of little predictable value to e-commerce participation.
After market orientation was removed from predictor list, it was found R square increased
slightly to 0.218 and predictable power of both users web experience and trust increased
slightly. Coefficient of users web experience increased to 0.46 (p<0.01) and coefficient of
trust increased to 0.37, however it still not statistically supported by the returned p value.
Hence it appears that the users web experience is the strongest predictor of e-commerce
participation in this model.

Discussion
The results of this study provide support for a majority of the hypotheses proposed at the
beginning of this research. Although some relationships did not receive significant support
from the data, the model seems to hold fairly well with the need for some moderate revision,
thus this model is a reasonable starting point for developing a framework for trust in B2C e-
commerce.

Trust, as a critical factor in e-commerce, is influenced predominately by three sources: e-

commerce reputation in general, the consumers, and the specific e-commerce web site. The
impression of e-commerce as a whole has a strong impact on willingness to trust on-line
shopping. The general credibility of e-commerce strongly influences the decision of whether
or not to adopt on-line shopping at all, however individual web sites influence the decision on
which web site to purchase from. Customers own experiences and attitudes also influence
their decision making process. E-commerce reputation is mainly reflected in the factors of
technology trustworthiness and perceived risk, individual e-commerce web site quality is
reflected in the factor of perceived site quality, and customers experience with the internet
reflect the third source of influences. To enhance the trust level in B2C e-commerce, those
factors need to be taken care of.

The research results also provide some evidence for the impact of income, education and
native country on trust and its related factors. It is hardly surprising that those people with
higher incomes are more likely to have greater web experience and participate in e-commerce,
people with higher education are more likely to worry about e-commerce technology, and
New Zealanders generally perceive less risk towards e-commerce. Therefore it is worthwhile
to further look into how exactly customers demographic characteristics influence their on-
line purchasing behaviours and perceptions.

The relationship between market orientation and e-commerce participation failed to get any
support from the data. Market orientation is a well-tried and tested factor which is closely

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related to business performance. In this research, outsiders were asked to judge market
orientation reflected on e-commerce web sites as a whole and customers actual e-commerce
participation is used as a performance measure. However, it seems the linkage between the
perceived market orientation and e-commerce participation is very weak. Several explanations
can contribute to this apparent contradiction.

First, market orientation is closely related to corporate culture and has been traditionally
measured within the organisation rather than outside the organisation. Consumers may not
have adequate knowledge to judge market orientation level purely by observing from the
outside. Therefore customers perception may not be an appropriate way to measure market
orientation. Second, since the idea of B2C e-commerce is still quite new, people may still be
on the verge of deciding whether or not to have a try, therefore the most influencing factors
are still trust and users web experience. However, with the development of such e-commerce,
the decision making task will gradually shift from whether to try to where to buy and what to
buy on-line, then at that stage, probably market orientation may become a key factor
influencing e-commerce participation. Therefore, the weight of market orientation decisions
in e-commerce participation may grow with its popularisation.

Another interesting phenomenon is that perceived risk and trust are not so obviously closely
related, and neither is perceived risk and e-commerce participation. It seems that people can
have a certain level of trust in e-commerce even if they perceive considerable risk and people
can participate in e-commerce even if they think it is risky. This contradiction is also evident
in Hoffman et al. (1999). It seems that the higher the users Internet experience, the more they
are likely to trust the technology, thus it may help to improve their trust in e-commerce.
However, the more people use the Internet, the higher their concern over security and privacy,
and thus it may reduce levels of trust. Therefore, on-line trust may not be a simple opposition
to perceived risk. Participation in e-commerce may be influenced more by motivations such
as curiosity, fun and convenience and less by perceived risk.

The findings of the risk relieving tactics were somewhat consistent with the findings by other
researchers. For example, this research finds that positive word of mouth is the most effective
in relieving customers anxiety in purchasing on-line, while Javenpaa et al (2000) found that
store reputation is very strong predictor of trust in-store. Similarly, money back warranty,
word of mouth and brand image have been found effective by Tan (1999) in reducing risk
aversion. It seems that most people do take advice from people around them on Internet
purchase decisions, and they do care if their risk can be best avoided and adequately
compensated in case.

Therefore, partnership with a well-known company may enhance the perception of

trustworthiness, therefore making the customer worry less about their potential risk, and
money back warranty is a reliever that make customers feel less worried about the risk since
they can get fully covered for financial loss. Detailed analysis on risk type suggests that
people worry more about performance risk, financial risk and time risk when buying from the
Internet and less about social risk and physiological risk.

This study has suggested an integrated trust model in the new B2C context, and the model
was a fair starting point for further exploration of the B2C trust model. Market orientation,
perceived site quality, technical trustworthiness, and users web experience were found to
strongly correlate with trust. Further, perceived site quality and users web experience were

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found strong predictors of e-commerce trust. Trust and users web experience together explain
a significant variance of e-commerce participation.

Based on this study, a more complete set of trust antecedents and consequences could be
identified and underlying relationships need to be further looked into. For example,
institutional characteristics could be a factor influencing trust. Jarvenpaa et al (2000) found
perceived web site size a factor influencing consumer trust in Internet shopping. Off-line
marketing activities can also have an impact on consumer trust, such as promoting e-
commerce web sites through newspapers, radio stations or TV programmes. Therefore, a
wider scope of trust factors could be investigated.

A theoretical paradox was observed in this study, which needs to be investigated: there is no
direct negative relationship between perceived risk and trust and between perceived risk and
e-commerce participation. Although a possible explanation has been proposed in this research,
further investigation needs to be carried out in order to give a convincing explanation.
Marketing orientation failed to account for e-commerce participation, it seems to be related to
trust which is related to e-commerce participation. The role that market orientation plays in
this model is not very clear and needs to be further investigated.

The six trust-related factors provide a framework that e-commerce managers could use to
evaluate how well their web sites could convey trust to on-line customers. To improve the
trust level among consumers, this paper strongly recommends that on-line businesses should
keep a customer focused business orientation, actively generate customer information and
provide value-added service on customer information. It is essential that web sites be most
responsive to customer requirements and allow customers to contribute their ideas to the
business operation. More importantly, this must be well communicated to customers to let
them know that their participation is appreciated and could made a difference. Site quality is a
vague concept; however, clearly it contains both marketing effort and technical effort. Flashy
is not enough. Every design idea should be backed up with a real consideration for customers
needs.

Customers judgement could be a good source and gathering customer feedback on web
design helps to ensure a web site is constructed the way it was designed to be. Technical
trustworthiness is most essential to trust. When adopting e-commerce technology, in addition
to performance consideration, such as reliability and scalability, it pays to ensure customers
privacy and data security are well protected as well as communicated. Although perceived
risk is not found directly linked to trust, every possible effort needs to be made to reduce the
risk perception to smooth customers anxiety over on-line purchases. Moreover, it pays to
understand the current customer and try to attract more experienced Internet users to the site.
As a result, trust will strengthen the customer relationship in the virtual marketplace and bring
in business revenue as it is positively related to e-commerce participation.

Finally, building trust in e-commerce cannot be fulfilled by any individual web site. Rather, it
can be fulfilled at group level. Facing the new way of shopping, consumers first have to
decide whether or not to purchase on-line before deciding which web site to purchase from.
That is, they will have to evaluate the trustworthiness of B2C e-commerce as a whole, before
they come to the stage of evaluating the possibility of any individual web site.

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