Empirical Research on the Evolution of Consumers' Trust in B2C E-business in China

Abstract

Extant studies have not yet combined trust and satisfaction with loyalty theoretically over the longitudinal stages. Little empirical studies have addressed how trust evolves over time, which results in the sparse insight about how trust beliefs changes at multiple stages. This paper conceptualizes the dynamics of trust building by identifying the constructs that contribute to changing trust-related beliefs from pre-purchase preparation stage, to post-purchase interaction, and then to relationship commitment. The dynamic model is tested through three-phase lab and online experiments. The empirical research results show that, online consumers’ trusting intention at pre-purchase preparation stage significantly positively affects their satisfaction at post-purchase interaction stage, which indirectly positively affects their e-loyalty at last, almost completely mediated by their relationship commitment to the B2C e-vendor. During the process by which consumers’ trust evolves over time, integrity, ability and benevolence beliefs are revised gradually and the new information (such as the level of satisfaction and e-loyalty) is integrated with the former beliefs to produce the new ones. Compared with former beliefs, satisfaction and e-loyalty have a higher effect on the new beliefs.