C/EI/18. Dissertation. The Importance and Affect of Trust on E-Commerce Success

This dissertation explored the importance and affect that trust has on e-commerce success. Online merchants, so called e-tailers, face greater challenges when trading online compared to their traditional counterparts in the high-street. These challenges include concerns about security and privacy, the problem that services are often unfamiliar to the user, a lack of direct interaction between the parties involved in the transaction and an inability to fully assess the credibility of the information being given to them. If retailers are to overcome these challenges, they must learn what makes consumers trust them, whether this is trust in their ability to deliver on their promises (competence), trust that they will abide by their commitments (integrity), or trust that the e-tailer will act in good faith (benevolence). This dissertation attempts to understand the relative importance of these so called trusting beliefs (competence, integrity and benevolence) depending on whether the e-tailer is selling airline tickets, books, CDs, clothing, computer software, electronic products, health and grooming or sporting goods. In so doing, the detailed literature review examines the growth of the Internet and e-commerce, the challenges faced by e-tailers, definitions of trust and trusting relationships, and the four main types of trust (institution-based trust, trusting intentions, trusting beliefs and disposition to trust), which influence consumers trusting behaviour online (for example, sharing personal details or providing credit card numbers).