An Empirical Study of Trust of Third Party Rating Services

Abstract

While third-party trust assurance programs such as TRUSTe and BizRate are playing an increasing role in facilitating online transaction, few studies have examined the antecedent factors that can lead to the trust of such programs. In this study, we develop a model of trust for a special type of third-party trust programs, i.e., Internet Business Rating Services. Perceived reputation, integrity, and competence were identified as important antecedent factors to the trust of IBRS. Our results show that perceived integrity and perceived competence were found to have significant impact on consumer trust of IBRS. Perceived reputation, however, only had significant effect for people with low trust propensity. Our study contributes to the trust literature by identifying areas of focus for IBRS and explaining why different IBRS and other third-party trust assurance programs may be used differently in the online marketplace.