Toward holistic insights into trust in electronic markets: examining the structure of the relationship between vendor trust and its antecedents

Abstract

This review advances propositions regarding the structure of the relationship between vendor trust and its antecedents as this structure pertains to the relative and complementary effectiveness of trust-building strategies. By understanding how the relationship between vendor trust and its antecedents is structured and why this relationship is structured the way it is, we hope to gain more holistic insights into trust in electronic market transactions and to provide online businesses with a clear recommendation of how to establish trust in an effective and efficient manner. Thus, while past research has made important contributions by uncovering a great number of antecedents to vendor trust, this review examines two strategies more in depth: Vendor reputation and Web site trust. Drawing from the literature on trust, we propose Vendor reputation to be more effective than Web site trust. We also propose a small complementary effect between Vendor reputation and Web site trust that may help online businesses to generate superior vendor trust.