Digital Trust Research Articles

Digital trust substitution technologies to support smallholder livelihoods in Sub-Saharan Africa

Blockchain technology has the potential to reduce the need for trust and to ensure accountability and equity in smallholder agricultural development. We present two applications – one already in progress and one hypothetical - using blockchain to address market failures in the smallholder sector in Sub-Saharan Africa. First, we explore BanQu, a blockchain-based platform used by Anheuser-Busch InBev to create verified financial identities for smallholders along the supply chain. Second, we discuss a hypothetical blockchain application to improve the reliability of actors within smallholder dairy cooperatives. Blockchain applications in smallholder agriculture could be transformative, serving as substitutes for trust, but alone blockchain is not a solution to the multiple challenges facing the smallholder farming sector.

Comparing Three Countries’ Higher Education Students’ Cyber Related Perceptions and Behaviours during COVID-19

In 2020, a global pandemic led to lockdowns, and subsequent social and business restrictions. These required overnight implementation of emergency measures to permit continued functioning of vital industries. Digital technologies and platforms made this switch feasible, but it also introduced several cyber related vulnerabilities, which students might not have known how to mitigate. For this study, the Global Cyber Security Index and the Cyber Risk literacy and education index were used to provide a cyber security context for each country. This research project—an international, cross-university, comparative, quantitative project—aimed to explore the risk attitudes and concerns, as well as protective behaviours adopted by, students at a South African, a Welsh and a Hungarian University, during the pandemic. This study’s findings align with the relative rankings of the Oliver Wyman Risk Literacy and Education Index for the countries in which the universities reside. This study revealed significant differences between the student behaviours of students within these universities. The most important differences were identified between students’ risk attitudes and concerns. It was also discovered that South African students reported having changed their protective online behaviours to the greatest extent, since the pandemic commenced. Recommendations are made suggesting that cyber security training and education, as well as improving the digital trust and confidence in digital platforms, are critical.

The Influence of Convenience, Benefits, Security and Trust on the Interest in Using Financial Technology in OVO Applications as a Digital Payment

This study aims to obtain data and find out the influence of convenience, benefits, security and trust on the interest in using financial technology in OVO applications as a digital payment study in the case of accounting students at the Faculty of Economics, Prima Indonesia University. The data collection method in this study used a questionnaire. This sampling technique data collection is using accidental sampling and a total of 102 respondents at the Prima Indonesia University. The results obtained in this study show that convenience and benefits do not have a significant partial influence on the interest in using financial technology in OVO applications as a digital payment, whereas security and trust have a significant partial influence on the interest in using financial technology in OVO applications as a digital payment. Simultaneously, convenience, benefits, security and trust have a significant influence on the interest in using financial technology in OVO applications as a digital payment.

Digital trust – asystematic literature review

Digital technologies, such as social networks, smartphones, block chainsorbig data, have become an indispensable part of our lives in recent years. They have a significant impact on our daily lives, even in crucial areas such as health, finance, and education. Recognising this, organisations presently face a difficult challenge – to create consumer digital trust. It should be noted that most studies have focused on the establishment of digital trust without identifying and considering the basic definition of “digital trust”. The purpose of this article is to provide insights regarding the state of the art of digital trust, and to suggest areas for future research. Using a systematic literature review, this paper provides an overview of the literature. The most important conclusionto be derived from this study is that there is no single generally accepted definition of digital trust. Although the early research on “digital trust” can be traced back to 1996, it was only after 2016 that the number of papers on this topic increased substantially.

Examining the Digital Mentality of Regional Population

Aim. The presented study examines the level of digital mentality among the population of the Orenburg region using the survey method.Tasks. The author aims to determine the results of examining the digital mentality of the population of the Orenburg region.Methods. The digital mentality of the population of the Orenburg region is examined using survey, analysis, and other methods.Results. A questionnaire is compiled in accordance with the approach used by the scientific community to examine the digital readiness and digital trust of the population. The answers to the questions of the author’s questionnaire characterize the level of computer literacy, digital competencies, and digital trust among the region’s population.Conclusions. The degree of development of digital competencies (digital knowledge and skills of interaction with digital tools) of the region’s residents directly affects the level of the population’s digital readiness; high accessibility of Internet resources provides opportunities to increase the digital literacy of the region’s population.

Digitalization in container shipping: Do perception and satisfaction regarding digital products in a non-technology industry affect overall customer loyalty?

Like many other non-tech industries, container shipping services and operations have recently started being digitalized through various digital products and technologies. Despite several proven and projected benefits of digitalization, the impact of digitalization on customer loyalty in non-tech industries has not been fully investigated. Following the recent digitization trend, this research paper examines the relationship between perception and satisfaction on recently implemented digital products and overall customer loyalty in container shipping. Anchored on the technology acceptance model (TAM), a partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) is applied based on the survey conducted on freight forwarders who are major customers of container lines. Results indicate that digital satisfaction and digital trust positively affect overall customer loyalty, while perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and digital trust positively influence digital satisfaction. Results of the study show that those digitalized services and operations of container lines have already started to influence overall customer loyalty. This paper provides important theoretical and managerial implications regarding digitalization in container shipping and other non-tech industries.

HPC in business: the impact of corporate digital responsibility on building digital trust and responsible corporate digital governance

PurposeThe implementation of high performance computing (HPC) in business (especially small and medium-sized enterprises) is accompanied with mistrust to a certain extent, which has imposed the need for building of digital trust (DTrust) among stakeholders. The purpose of the present paper is to find out the ways on how to build and maintain such trust.Design/methodology/approachAnalysis and critical reflection on previous research dealing with phenomena of digital transformation (DT), HPC, corporate digital responsibility (CDR) and DTrust have enabled the authors to design their own conceptual model as the answer to the research questions of how, and in what way, CDR influences DTrust.FindingsThe authors have determined that the previous researches pointed to the existence of the correlation between CDR and DTrust although they did not elaborate on this explicitly. It was shown that the DT itself directly influences trust and sustainability. The indirect influence DT has via CDR was the task the authors undertook through designing a new conceptual model within whose frame the authors separately presented the influence of total CDR on DTrust as well as of the specific CDR dimensions on the particular dimensions of DTrust.Originality/valueThe authors tried to offer the conceptual model that exactly determines the relation of individual dimensions of the processed phenomena by analyzing theoretical and empirical researches carried out so far, and eo ipso shed more light on their mutual relation. The authors firmly believe that this paper offers a useful frame for further empirical researches.

Assessment of Digitalization of Interaction Between the State and Citizens

The purpose of this paper is to develop a comprehensive approach to evaluating digitalization of interaction of the state and citizens in the sphere of providing state services. The objectives of the study include the analysis of current Russian and foreign approaches to assessing the digitalization of interaction between the state and citizens; development and testing of a composite indicator methodology for conducting such an assessment in the provision of public services. Materials and methods. When preparing the paper, the authors studied Russian and foreign theoretical and practical approaches to evaluating digitalization of interaction between the state and citizens. The approbation of the digitalization index of interaction between the state and citizens proposed in the article was carried out on the basis of data from a selective federal statistical observation of the Federal State Statistics Service on the use of information technologies, information and communication networks by the population, as well as the data from the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation. To achieve the objective, theoretical methods (comparative analysis, synthesis, and generalization), modelling, and correlation analysis were used. Results. Based on the analysis of foreign and Russian approaches, their advantages and limitations, the article substantiates the methodology for calculating the digitalization index of interaction between the state and citizens, taking into account the immediate results (the availability of state and municipal services in the electronic form), intermediate results (the demand for the electronic form of service provision) and the final results of digital transformation in the provision of public services (satisfaction of citizens with the quality of services provided in the electronic form), as well as the risks of digital interaction (the level of digital trust of citizens in the interaction with the state). Approbation of the digitalization index of interaction between the state and citizens in the regional context was carried out. To assess the applicability of the proposed index, the correlation dependence of its values and the values of the index components on the level of education of the population, employment, income and urbanization, as well as differences in the availability of information and communication technologies infrastructure was investigated. At the same time, the level of digitalization correlation of interaction between the state and citizens with social factors is higher than with infrastructural ones. This means that to solve the problem of digital inequality in Russian regions, it is not enough to provide universal access to the Internet; factors of human capital development also play an important role in promoting digital channels of interaction. Conclusion. Assessing the digitalization of interaction between the state and citizens requires taking into account various indicators that reflect the immediate, intermediate and final results of such an interaction, as well as the risks associated with the transition to “digit”. In terms of the provision of public services for such an assessment, it is advisable to use the digitalization index of interaction between the state and citizens. Further promising areas of research in the field of assessing the digitalization of interaction between the state and citizens are related to the study of the influence of citizens’ trust in government bodies on the level of digitalization of interaction between the state and citizens, as well as taking into account the interaction of citizens and the state within the framework of other types of state functions (development and implementation of state policy, regulation, control and supervisory activities). The implementation of these directions will require the expansion of the currently available information base.

소셜미디어를 통한 디지털 헬스케어 정보특성과 신뢰, 관계지속의도의 관계

이 연구의 목적은 소셜미디어를 통한 디지털 헬스케어 정보특성과 신뢰, 관계지속의도의 관계를 규명하는 것이다. 서울․경기도 지역에 거주하는 생활체육 동호회 회원을 대상으로 온라인 설문조사를 실시하여 323부의 설문지를 최종 연구 자료로 사용하였다. 자료처리는 빈도분석과 신뢰도 분석, 상관분석을 위하여 SPSS 21.0 프로그램을 이용하였으며, 확인적 요인분석과 구조방정식 모형검증을 위하여 AMOS 21.0 프로그램을 이용하였다. 이후 제시된 연구의 결과를 바탕 으로 도출된 결론을 요약하면 다음과 같다. 첫째, 소셜미디어를 통한 디지털 헬스케어 정보특성은 신뢰에 전반적으로 유의한 영향을 미치는 것을 확인할 수 있었다. 둘째, 소셜미디어를 통한 디지털 헬스케어 정보특성은 관계지속의도에 전반적으로 유의한 영향을 미치는 것을 확인할 수 있었다. 셋째, 신뢰는 관계지속의도에 유의한 영향을 미치는 것을 확인 할 수 있었다.

Unjustified trust beliefs: Trust conflation on sharing economy platforms

Previous research has addressed the benefits of trust mechanisms on sharing economy platforms, and digital trust cues are widely accepted to immediately boost trust beliefs amongst peer consumers; yet little is known about whether such trust beliefs are justified. Our mixed-methods, abductive research explores trust conflation by peer consumers who are relatively unfamiliar with a platform, and how this may differ from the trust differentiation of more experienced peer consumers. We find that when peer consumers start to use a sharing economy platform, they perceive that various digital trust cues influence multiple trustees across different levels simultaneously, forming unjustified beliefs provoked by trust conflation relating to the platform intermediary and peer providers. Once peer consumers have had more time to gain relevant knowledge, they develop more accurate beliefs by differentiating relationships between digital trust cues and multiple trustees.

Digital Elections and the Problem of Liquid Trust in the Kenyan Electoral Management Institution

This article is inspired by studies on digital trust at the workplace. The article seeks to bridge the gap created by the lack of explanations in academic studies and theorising on why, even though elections can be held in African countries using technology and digital tools, the outcomes continue to be contested, as in the past. Blame is laid on the electoral institution, the people running the institution, and the technology applied during the election process. The study provides background regarding the Kenyan context, and benefits from a wide theorisation and generalisations taken from the literature on trust in the functions of institutions, people, and technology. The article also links these three in the broader framework of the project of digital trust at the workplace. It concludes that the holding of elections using digital technology did not yield the desired results of solidifying trust in the Kenyan electoral process and in the political domain as a whole. The context of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) involves liquid trust and a great deal of frustration, meaning that the decision to make use of technology does not necessarily lead to better results. Liquid trust is a type of trust which is short-lived, ephemeral, access-based, and dematerialised, while solid trust is an enduring and materialised type of trust. Modern liquid trust generates its other: the digital non-trustworthy or ethics-less design of a digital world.

Enhancing online business sector: digital trust formation process

The paper reviews Georgia's digital trust formation process and underlines the most important challenges for the online business sector. This research can be generalized for most developing countries where the digital transition process is on the agenda, especially for countries that have recently emerged from economic-political transition. Georgia has completed the transition from a centrally planned economic system (the heritage of being part of the Soviet Union) to a free market economy. Although trust in institutions is improving gradually, mistrust in business processes is still a great challenge for local business sectors. A wide-reaching lockdown caused by the 2020-2021 COVID-19 pandemic pushed both firms and individuals further towards online activity worldwide. In this regard, trust has become the key determinant in facilitating electronic transactions. Technological advances are providing dozens of tools to improve customer satisfaction and trust, which should lead to customer loyalty. On the other hand, lack of digital skills and digital security problems raises digital untrust concerns. Therefore, trust research in the digital economy is becoming more actual for academic or business studies. Digital trust is a multidimensional factor that is under the influence of digital and physical operations. In Georgia, businesses have to overcome obstacles built-in people's minds as a heritage of the Soviet Union. Georgia was a part of the Soviet Union for 70 years, which critically degraded the trust of both formal and informal institutions. Therefore, building digital trust in business is getting more complex as it includes traditional trust problems and digital challenges too. The main research purpose in this paper is to present the digital trust forming process in Georgia to reveal the major problems. This study involved the trust stack model in analysing three different stages of trust formation in the Georgian digital economy (trust in the idea, trust in the platform, trust in the individual). The research identified challenges and steps which should be carried out soon. Research academic findings and methodological approaches can be used to analyze other developing countries whose economies are influenced by the digital transformation process.

The Economic Impact of Laws that Weaken Encryption

The Economic Impact of Laws that Weaken Encryption

Improving the Orchestration Resilience of a Smart Integrated Tourism Destination – A Case Study in the Swiss Alps

Most tourism destinations in Switzerland are fragmented. The result is that actors along the customer’s journey intervene in a disordered way. To create a smart integrated tourism destination, we posited that collaboration between these different actors should be trained upstream, in the design process. However, this training requires a laboratory independent of day-to-day business activity and allowing a type of rehearsal by the local stakeholders in the tourism industry. Through a case study based on SWISSPEAK Resorts (SPR), this research article illustrates that merely creating a digital marketplace for tourism is not enough to ensure a truly smart, integrated customer experience. Based on consecutive pre-experiments, we concluded that digital trust was of primary importance for the resilience of a smart integrated tourism destination and that orchestrating and rehearsing it was essential.

Детство в цифровом городе: на границе между рисками и возможностями

The article focuses on child personality development in an urban environment shaped by digital transformation. Traditionally, digitalisation of urban environment is seen as an important resource for ensuring a high quality of life in the city, maximizing the preservation and growth of human capital and stimulating sustainable economic development. However, the analysis of the smart city as a space for socialisation opens up new perspectives for understanding the digital elements of this environment. Based on qualitative and quantitative research, the article discusses the risks and opportunities for young people’s socialisation in a digital city. An important socio-psychological feature of digital citizens is their strong dependence on digital technology in their behavioural patterns and habits. At the same time, people’s immersion into the digital environment is uneven. Based on the extent of regular digital technology use, two types of digital citizens can be distinguished: “digital immigrants” and “digital natives”. The article aligns these properties of the individuals living in digital cities and the metrics of city’s child- and adolescent-friendliness: freedom of mobility, other features of urban interaction, urban ecology and the cultural and aesthetic role of the urban environment. Based on this analysis, the article identifies some key advantages and risks of the digital city as a space for socialisation. The primary threat connected to child’s personal development in a digital city lie the growing alienation and misunderstanding between generations, i.e. the conflict between digital natives and digital migrants. On the other hand, the advantages of a digital city include the wide availability of education and creative development resources, opportunities for children and adolescents’ active participation in the life of the city as well as multiculturalism and growing “digital trust” in young people.

On the Trust and Trust Modeling for the Future Fully-Connected Digital World: A Comprehensive Study

With the fast development of digital technologies, we are running into a digital world. The relationship among people and the connections among things become more and more complex, and new challenges arise. To tackle these challenges, trust - a soft security mechanism - is considered a promising technology. Thus, in this survey, we do a comprehensive study on trust and trust modelling for the future digital world. We revisit the definitions and properties of trust, analyse the trust theories, and discuss their impact on digital trust modelling. We analyse the digital world and its corresponding environment where people, things, and infrastructure connect with each other. We detail the challenges that require trust in these digital scenarios. Under our analysis of trust and the digital world, we define different types of trust relationships and find out the factors that are needed to ensure a fully representative model. Next, to meet the challenges of digital trust modelling, comprehensive trust model evaluation criteria are proposed, and potential security and privacy issues of trust modelling are analysed. Finally, we provide a wide-ranging analysis of different methodologies, mathematical theories, and how they can be applied to trust modelling.

Wood Product Tracking Using an Improved AKAZE Method in Wood Traceability System

Tracking of the wood product is an important technology in the trade activity of rare plants. Normally, the factories use Quick Response (QR) and Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) to identify the individual wood product, but these technologies are not safe enough because they can be easily falsified. It can be seen that traditional methods are hard to catch the detail of the slim wood texture from the wood product. In this study, a novel method is employed to resolve these problems using a biometric feature on the surface of the real wood product to distinguish the individual wood product. AKAZE is used to extract the key-point of wood texture. A sub-area detection technique along with a serialization method is then developed to improve the rate of identification. The sub-area detection technique deals with picking out a sub-region in which there are enough AKAZE points as small as possible. The serialization method is also utilized to reduce the redundant process of feature extraction. The experimental results demonstrate that the values of accuracy, recall, and F1 reach 0.98, 0.96, and 0.96, respectively. The match time that uses serialized function is reduced to 1/3 of which has no application in the original image. The validated results also reveal that our proposed methodology improves the robustness of the wood product identification, and it can be used in Wood Traceability System (WTS) with the blockchain to resolve the digital trust problem and the fast distinction issues of the real wood product.

Digital Inequity Survey to the Teachers of St. Aloysius Academy of Dasmariñas: A Basis for Digital Trust and Intuition

In the field of education, teachers must be technologically abreast especially in time of the COVID-19 Pandemic addressing the demand of the New Normal. To build confidence and capacity in digital teaching-learning, teachers must consider developing their skills in using digital technologies in education and they must also embed the use of digital devices in the teaching-learning practice. In this premise, this research article explains the digital inequality that the teachers are experiencing and its effect on their teaching profession and on establishing among themselves the digital trust and intuition. This study also aimed to answer, “What are the digital equalities do teachers encounter?” Th teachers’ decision for digital trust and intuition is affected by the digital inequalities they are experiencing. This study draws insights from a one-page survey questionnaire to 20 selected teachers of St. Aloysius Academy of Dasmariñas representing the faculty from the 3 departments such as preschool, grade school and high school. The results of this study indicate that teachers of St. Aloysius Academy of Dasmariñas are digitally inclined as manifested by their subscriptions to various digital devices and services. The impact of the digital technology to them in terms of social, economic, political and cultural affects their decision in digital trust and intuition. Overcoming issues on digital inequality among teachers will lead to digital trust and intuition. The school, from where the teachers are employed must address the digital inequality by ensuring that all teachers have equal chances in accessing the technology-based teaching devices and by providing them capacity building trainings which are imperative for the demand of the new normal. Teachers must embrace the digital technology in the community and in their workplace and imbibe the digital trust and intuition in education.

“Digital trust” vs “Distrust” in the Formation of Social Relations and Practices of Glocal Society

Introduction. The individual’s application of established social practices in the digital environment faces certain difficulties caused by the wide opportunities for “honest” and “dishonest” behavior on the Internet. The high level of trust in digital technologies and the possibility of manipulating personal data, the desire to rely on “expert opinion” and unreliable information, the social need for communication and the illusion of communication in social networks, as well as other dilemmas of relationships in the digital world and operating with big data create a sense of uncertainty, instability and disunity in the perception of digital reality. The purpose of the article is to identify social and ethical aspects of trust phenomenon as an attitude of consciousness, obstacles to digital trust and identify ways to develop it. Materials and Methods. The interdisciplinary approach based on ethics of information technology, sociology, and communication theory allows us to analyze the formation of new social practices and interpret the development of a person’s value attitude to new realities of life. Research result. The following areas of actualization of the concept of “trust” in the digital world are identified as trust in data and algorithms, trust in “digital subject”, “Internet of trust” as a space of obligations and rules. The formation of the “Internet of trust” is associated with awareness of all social, moral and psychological problems associated with the process of combining online and offline environments in the social practice of an individual, where new forms of applying traditional standards of behavior should be found. Discussion and Conclusion. Postponing the rational risk analysis of digital interaction by an individual “for later” provokes the creation of situations that are critical for the individual’s well-being and security. The costs of digital trust are reduced security and creation of “traps” in public relations and social practices. Digital environment creates a situation of vulnerability of an individual, which encourages him to resort to possible measures of protection. In turn, the “Internet of trust” as a new digital reality is absolutely necessary for the effective functioning and further development of society.

Securities Scholars’ Comment Letter on Draft Model Whistleblower Award and Protection Act

In May 2020, the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA), an organization representing state and provincial securities regulators in Canada, the United States, and Mexico, released a draft Model Whistleblower Award and Protection Act (the Proposed Act) for public comment. The Proposed Act drew from securities-whistleblower statutes in Utah and Indiana, as well as the federal Sarbanes-Oxley and Dodd-Frank Acts. In brief, the Proposed Act provided for a state-level securities whistleblower-award program and an anti-retaliation private right of action. NASAA received seven comment letters, including one from securities scholars. Our securities scholars’ letter highlighted two areas of concern. First, we noted that in Digital Realty Trust, Inc. v. Somers, 138 S. Ct. 767, 778 (2018), the Supreme Court held that the Dodd-Frank Act did not protect from employer retaliation those who blow the whistle only internally. Given that the Proposed Act’s text closely tracked Dodd-Frank’s anti-retaliation provision, we observed that it had the same problem seen in Digital Realty. We urged a revision to close this gap, a change that would give internal securities whistleblowers at least a state retaliation right of action. Second, we urged that the whistleblower-award provision allow for attorney-mediated anonymous reporting. In late August 2020, NASAA released the final version of the act (the Final Act). The Final Act’s Section 10 resolved our Digital Realty concern by extending anti-retaliation protections to those who report only internally. The Final Act’s Section 4 addressed our concern that whistleblowers who submit anonymous reports pre-award should remain eligible for whistleblower awards. A copy of our comment letter follows this introductory note. The Proposed Act is attached as Exhibit A and the Final Act as Exhibit B.