英文摘要 |
In spite of the phenomenal growth of online activities, consumers are still reluctant to engage in spontaneous financial transactions in online marketplaces. Consumers may not trust online vendors due to the fact that the business-to-consumer process often takes place between strangers. It is thus necessary to study the critical impediment issues, such as trust mechanisms, in the e-commerce environment. While a secure technical infrastructure is crucial, it might not be sufficient to create trust without considering the context of online transactions. The characteristics of interactions during e-commerce exchange will be critical for the building stage of trust development. Alternately, what kinds of design factors will affect consumers' sense of trust will be very important for most online business rookies. Their failure could be predicted if these newcomers neglect to establish an environment of trustworthiness, but instead rely on their obscure reputations and company profiles. Therefore, the purposes of the present study are to investigate the design factors that might affect consumers' initial trust when shopping online. A two-step empirical study was conducted. The results of this study suggest that there are specific design factors contributing to consumers' initial trust through three shopping phases: the Information phase, the Agreement phase, and the Community phase. |