Technology Trust in Internet-Based Interorganizational Electronic Commerce

Abstract

Trust in Internet-based Business-to-Business (B2B) e-commerce is an important issue for both practitioners and academicians. Whereas the traditional notion of dyadic interfirm trust primarily focuses on trust in a trading partner firm, trust in e-commerce also implicitly incorporates the notion of trust in the transaction infrastructure and underlying control mechanisms (technology trust), which deals with transaction integrity, authentication, confidentiality, non-repudiation, and best business practices. This research explicitly examines this new institutional character of trust in B2B e-commerce, arguing that business value realization is heavily dependent on the dimension of technology trust, captured as perceived benefits and actual organizational performance, even after controlling for the positive effects of partner trust. Given the absence of adequate metrics to capture the notion of technology trust in B2B e-commerce, this research develops and validates a measure for technology trust and tests its effect on benefits and performance. This chapter contributes to theory by bridging the gap between technological solutions (technology trust) from an institutional trust perspective, trading partner trust (relationship trust) and business value (perceived benefits and organizational performance). The proposed theoretical model is tested in organizations actively involved in B2B e-commerce using survey methodology. The findings from 288 firms validated the importance of technology trust for organizational success in B2B e-commerce.