Dominant Factors for Online Trust

Abstract

The uses of the World Wide Web on the Internet for commerce and information access continue to expand. The e-commerce business has proven to be a promising channel of choice for consumers as it is gradually transforming into a mainstream business activity. However, lack of trust has been identified as a major obstacle to the adoption of online shopping. Empirical study of online trust is constrained by the shortage of high-quality measures of general trust in the e-commence contexts. Based on theoretical or empirical studies in the literature of marketing or information system, nine factors have sound theoretical sense and support from the literature. A survey method was used for data collection in this study. A total of 172 usable questionnaires were collected from respondents. This study presents a new set of instruments for use in studying online trust of an individual. The items in the instrument were analyzed using a factors analysis. The results demonstrated reliable reliability and validity in the instrument.This study identified seven factors has a significant impact on online trust. The seven dominant factors are reputation, third-party assurance, customer service, propensity to trust, website quality, system assurance and brand. As consumers consider that doing business with online vendors involves risk and uncertainty, online business organizations need to overcome these barriers. Further, implication of the finding also provides e-commerce practitioners with guideline for effectively engender online customer trust.