The impact of hyperlink affordance, psychological reactance, and perceived business tie on trust transfer

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of hyperlink affordance, psychological reactance, perceived loss of freedom, perceived business tie between sites, and trust in source site, on trust in target site. Hyperlink affordance represents the extent that the Web encourages users’ behavior. Perceived loss of freedom is based on psychological reactance, which refers to the extent that users react to hyperlink affordance. In order to examine the research model, this study used 305 responses from Korean users to conduct three experiments: (1) evaluate trust transfer from the online source Web site to another online target site (Experiment 1), (2) evaluate trust transfer from an online site to an offline target site (Experiment 2), and (3) evaluate trust transfer from an offline site to an online target site (Experiment 3). Trust is transferred from source to target site in the test results of all three models. The hyperlink affordance affects trust transfer in the test results of Experiment 1. Perceived loss of freedom based on psychological reactance negatively affects trust transfer in the test results of Experiments 2 and 3, which decreases the effect of hyperlink affordances on trust transfer. The perceived business tie between sites affects trust transfer in the test results of Experiment 3. The study provides insights into the application of trust transfer in various settings of source and target site in online and offline business.