The technology and trust model proposed earlier in this book, included environment related trust issues as one category of determinants of levels of trust in B2B e-commerce. These issues relate to a number of factors that may influence creation of a general environment of trust in B2B e-commerce infrastructure among the members of trading partner community. These factors influence the general attitudes, perceptions, beliefs, etc. of users/trading partners of e-commerce infrastructure, in general. This has affected the business relations among the trading parties involved. Though the inter-organizational systems have helped a lot in improving the business relations, the vulnerability and the virtual environment of such systems give rise to trust issues that may affect the level of adoption of B2B e-commerce. This chapter makes an attempt to empirically examine the relationship between the levels of trust and the identified environment-related trust issues.
TopAn Overview Of Theoretical Background
A number of studies have been conducted that attempt to relate socio-cultural characteristics, regulatory framework and technological standards to adoption of information technology including e-commerce. Moghadam et al. (2008) studied the impact of differences in the national culture on IT implementation and adoption. The study used Hofstede theory as the primary theoretical framework and with an objective to identify the relationship between Iranian culture and implementation of IT. They observed that national culture could be a restraining or driving force in e-adoption.
Mutz et al. (2005) in their study of online buying behavior observed that higher levels of social trust could result in greater intent to shop via Internet. They also observed the positive trust condition was more effective in encouraging purchase intent in the case of first time online buyers. They suggested that levels of social trust in the user community can be modified by what they see, hear, and read. Vishwanath (2003) made similar observations in the context of online auction sites. In a comparative study of the bidding behavior of e-bay participants of Canada, France and Germany, he observed that potential bidder’s reliance on seller ratings was more in the low trust countries than that in the high-trust countries. He concluded that buyers in countries in low trust levels look for information about trustworthiness of sellers from alternative sources while evaluating purchase options.
Sanchez-Franco et al. (2009) evaluated the mediating role of personal factors affecting user web behavior. Focused attention, enjoyment, ultrarianism, and enjoyment were identified as the main personal factors. Further, they observed that higher the degree of experimental browsing more is the time spent on the virtual environment.
Huang et al. (2003) concluded that social trust helps in explaining different rates of the adoption of the Internet across countries. They suggested that countries low at social trust may have lower rate of e-commerce adoption. However, the study limited its focus on the access to Internet and did not examine the buying behavior.
Sutherland and Tan (2004) studied the influence of personality and stressed that extroversion and openness to experience has greater disposition to trust, whereas neuroticism and conscientiousness leads to a lower disposition to trust.