IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/ororsc/v14y2003i1p5-17.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Trust Transfer on the World Wide Web

Author

Listed:
  • Katherine J. Stewart

    (University of Maryland, Robert H. Smith School of Business, College Park, Maryland 20742)

Abstract

The World Wide Web (WWW) has been touted as providing great opportunities for small businesses to compete and thrive. Concerns about trust have been identified as a barrier to such businesses' success. This research explores how consumers' initial trust judgments about organizations they encounter on the Web may be influenced by hypertext links from trusted websites and associations with the more trust-inducing traditional retail channel. This paper develops and tests a cognitive model of the trust transfer process, arguing that trust is transferred across hypertext links based on the perceived interaction and similarity of the linked organizations, and that institution-based trust is transferred from the traditional shopping channel to a Web-based organization based on evidence that the Web-based organization has a physical store. An experimental study shows that a hypertext link from one website to another increased the extent to which the linked organizations were perceived to have a business relationship and be similar, and these perceptions had a positive influence on trusting beliefs regarding the linked site. Associating with the physical shopping channel by showing a picture of a building on a website increased the extent to which subjects reported intention to buy from the site. The study provided empirical evidence that trusting beliefs regarding the website had a significant positive effect on intention to buy from it. This paper discusses further development of the trust transfer model based on the social perception literature and explores implications for future research.

Suggested Citation

  • Katherine J. Stewart, 2003. "Trust Transfer on the World Wide Web," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 14(1), pages 5-17, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ororsc:v:14:y:2003:i:1:p:5-17
    DOI: 10.1287/orsc.14.1.5.12810
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/orsc.14.1.5.12810
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/orsc.14.1.5.12810?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. La Porta, Rafael, et al, 1997. "Trust in Large Organizations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(2), pages 333-338, May.
    2. Fisman, Raymond & Khanna, Tarun, 1999. "Is trust a historical residue? Information flows and trust levels," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 79-92, January.
    3. Akbar Zaheer & Bill McEvily & Vincenzo Perrone, 1998. "Does Trust Matter? Exploring the Effects of Interorganizational and Interpersonal Trust on Performance," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 9(2), pages 141-159, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bönte, Werner, 2008. "Inter-firm trust in buyer-supplier relations: Are knowledge spillovers and geographical proximity relevant?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 67(3-4), pages 855-870, September.
    2. Judit Oláh & Attila Bai & György Karmazin & Péter Balogh & József Popp, 2017. "The Role Played by Trust and Its Effect on the Competiveness of Logistics Service Providers in Hungary," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(12), pages 1-22, December.
    3. Judit Oláh & Yusmar Ardhi Hidayat & Zdzisława Dacko-Pikiewicz & Morshadul Hasan & József Popp, 2021. "Inter-Organizational Trust on Financial Performance: Proposing Innovation as a Mediating Variable to Sustain in a Disruptive Era," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-18, September.
    4. Filipiak, Ute, 2016. "Trusting financial institutions: Out of reach, out of trust?," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 200-214.
    5. Ding, Zhujun & Au, Kevin & Chiang, Flora, 2015. "Social trust and angel investors' decisions: A multilevel analysis across nations," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 307-321.
    6. Goodell, John W., 2017. "Trust and Governance: The conditioning role of national culture," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 23(C), pages 80-86.
    7. Levin, Mark (Левин, Марк) & Shilova, Nadezhda V. (Шилова, Надежда), 2016. "Rentseeking Behavior in Systems with a Complex Structure [Рентоориентированное Поведение В Системах Со Сложной Структурой]," Working Papers 2272, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration.
    8. Buchan, Nancy & Croson, Rachel, 2004. "The boundaries of trust: own and others' actions in the US and China," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 55(4), pages 485-504, December.
    9. Randall Morck & Bernard Yeung, 2003. "Family Control and the Rent-Seeking Society," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 585, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    10. Luigi Guiso & Paola Sapienza & Luigi Zingales, 2004. "The Role of Social Capital in Financial Development," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(3), pages 526-556, June.
    11. Somanathan, E. & Rubin, Paul H., 2004. "The evolution of honesty," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 54(1), pages 1-17, May.
    12. Liang, Qiao & Huang, Zuhui & Lu, Haiyang & Wang, Xinxin, 2015. "Social Capital, Member Participation, and Cooperative Performance: Evidence from China’s Zhejiang," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 18(1), pages 1-30, February.
    13. Mueller, Holger & Philippon, Thomas, 2006. "Concentrated Ownership and Labour Relations," CEPR Discussion Papers 5776, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    14. Kittichok Nithisathian & Lavanchawee Sujarittanonta & John C Walsh, 2016. "The Thick Black and White Ocean among Buddhist Pilgrimage Tourist Operators in Thailand," Journal of Social and Development Sciences, AMH International, vol. 7(3), pages 11-19.
    15. Buchan, Nancy R. & Johnson, Eric J. & Croson, Rachel T.A., 2006. "Let's get personal: An international examination of the influence of communication, culture and social distance on other regarding preferences," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 60(3), pages 373-398, July.
    16. Mr. Daouda Sembene, 2007. "Give Trust a Chance—A Model of Trust in the Context of an IMF-Supported Program," IMF Working Papers 2007/042, International Monetary Fund.
    17. Johnson, Noel D. & Mislin, Alexandra, 2012. "How much should we trust the World Values Survey trust question?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 116(2), pages 210-212.
    18. Paxton, Pamela & Knack, Stephen, 2008. "Individual and country-level factors affecting support for foreign aid," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4714, The World Bank.
    19. Han, Shaojie & Su, Jingqin & Lyu, Yibo & Liu, Qing, 2022. "How do business incubators govern incubation relationships with different new ventures?," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    20. Engelhardt, Sebastian v. & Freytag, Andreas, 2013. "Institutions, culture, and open source," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 90-110.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:inm:ororsc:v:14:y:2003:i:1:p:5-17. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.