Initial Trust with Unknown E-tailers in the Context of Online Gift Shopping

Abstract

Abstract This study seeks to investigate the relationships of constructs related to initial trust with unknown e-tailers in the context of online gift shopping. Trust is an important issue in the online market since the Internet is considered to be a relatively risky shopping channel due to potential credit or identity fraud. This is true particularly in the context of online gift shopping. When shopping for gifts, the buyer is not the ultimate consumer of the product, so the consumer's risk perceptions may increase. Therefore, online gift shoppers are more likely to be threatened by significant risks and uncertainties than other kinds of shoppers when they transact with unknown e-tailers. The conceptual framework of this study is primarily based on McKnight et al. (2002), who provide the theoretical conceptualization and empirical validation of initial trust in the online environment. Initial trust in an online environment is not based on customers’ previous experience with and meaningful knowledge of the e-tailer, but on characteristics of the web transaction environment (institution-based trust), the e-tailer (trusting beliefs, trusting intentions), and the end-users’ own disposition to trust. McKnight et al. (2002) propose four trast-related constructs within the broad framework of the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975): disposition to trust (a general propensity to trust others); institution-based trust (perceptions of the institutional environment); trusting beliefs (perceptions of specific web vendor attributes); and trusting intention (intention to engage in trust-related behaviors with a specific web vendor). McKnight et al. (2002) suggest that disposition to trust and institution-based trust affect trusting beliefs and trusting intention and trusting beliefs also affect trusting intention. Based on the framework and literature review, the following hypotheses were proposed: Consumers’ trusting beliefs in an unknown e-tailer will positively affect their intentions to purchase from its website in the context of online gift shopping (H1); Customers’ perceived institution-based trust will positively affect their trusting beliefs in an unknown e-tailer in the context of online gift shopping (H2); Consumers’ perceptions of an unknown e-tailer's site quality will positively affect their trusting beliefs in the context of online gift shopping (H3); and Consumers’ perceptions of an unknown e-tailer's site quality will positively affect their intentions to purchase from the e-tailer's website in the context of online gift shopping (H4). One-hundred-and-five undergraduate students, representing a variety of majors from a Midwestern university volunteered for this study in exchange for extra-credit points toward a course grade. The vast majority of respondents were female (95%), Caucasian or European-American (84%), and between the ages of 20 and 23 (81%). Participants were directed to a website with which they were unfamiliar to look for a gift for their families and relatives. Once they found their desired products, they were asked to fill out a questionnaire. It was found that trusting intentions were positively predicted by two dimensions of trusting beliefs: benevolence/integrity and ability. There was a positive relationship between institution-based trust and trusting beliefs. Customers who perceived positive situational normality regarding activities on the Internet had positive trusting beliefs in the e-tailer. Perceived site quality positively predicted perceptions of both the benevolence/integrity and the ability of the e-tailer. A significantly positive relationship between perceived site quality and trusting intentions was found. Thus, customers who perceived high website quality had positive trusting intentions. While the Internet gives gifters the opportunity to research a number of new gift sites easily, lesser-known e-tailers face the challenge of showing trustworthiness to customers on their first visits to their websites. This study suggests that online gift shoppers want e-tailers to be willing and able to act in the consumer's interest, to be truthful in their transactions (e.g., not disclose personal information to other parties), and to be competent in delivering the offered goods as promised. A high-quality website may often be interpreted as indicating a high-quality e-tailer. Lesser-known e-tailers could gain trust by designing their websites in a sophisticated manner with convenient navigation, a strong communications tool and solid transaction techniques. Therefore, institutional cues (e.g., certification by a third party) or information (e.g., privacy protection, general reliability of the e-tailer's implementation of Internet technology) should not be excluded as important attributes of website design, which can boost trust.