Abstract
Reputation systems as well as seller depictions (photos; avatars) have been shown to reduce buyer uncertainty and to foster trust in online trading. With the emergence of globalized e-markets, it remains an urgent question whether these mechanisms, found to be effective for Western cultures, also apply to other cultures. Hypothesizing that members of collectivistic cultures in contrast to those of individualistic cultures would rely more on visual social cues (seller faces) than on factual information (reputation scores), we compared buying decisions of Arab and German participants in an experimental trust game. Photo-realistic avatars were used instead of photos to control facial features and expressions. The results revealed significant main effects for both reputation scores and avatar faces. Moreover, both variables significantly affected the purchase behavior of Arab as well as German buyers, suggesting cross-cultural universals in the processing of trust cues. The results have implications for future cross-cultural studies in e-commerce as well as the design of online markets and shared virtual environments.
Highlights
It is hardly possible to imagine today’s world without internetstores and C2C (Consumer to Consumer) platforms, such as Amazon or eBay
We examined the influence of reputation scores and seller avatars on the formation of e-trust in German and Arab participants in an online trust game
Assuming cross-cultural universals in uncertainty reduction [37], we hypothesized that factual information about previous seller behavior as well as visual social cues significantly contribute to trust in both cultures
Summary
It is hardly possible to imagine today’s world without internetstores and C2C (Consumer to Consumer) platforms, such as Amazon or eBay. Even though online trading provides tremendous advantages in efficiency and accessibility for its users, it has been characterized as fraught with uncertainty and risk [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]. Online transactions are dispersed in space and time [8,9], and communication channels between the market participants are limited [10]. Trust is broadly conceived as a crucial factor in dealing with transaction risks and potentially paralyzing uncertainty [6,11,12,13,14,15,16]. It can be understood as a form of social capital that enables cooperation under uncertainty [5,18,19,20,21,22,23,24]
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