Perils of Internet fraud: an empirical investigation of deceptionand trust with experienced Internet consumers

This study examines consumer evaluations of a real commercial web site and a fraudulent site that imitates it. The forged site contains malicious manipulations designed to increase trust in the site, decrease perceived risk, and ultimately increase the likelihood that visitors would buy from it. Besides measuring the consumer's willingness to buy from the site, this study recorded the actual ordering of a laptop. Results show that most subjects failed to detect the fraud manipulations, albeit a few succeeded. The fraud has the effect of increasing the consumers' reliance in assurance mechanisms and trust mechanisms, which in turn decrease perceived risk and increase trust in the store. The study confirms hypothesized relationships between purchase behavior, willingness to buy, attitudes toward the store, risk, and trust that are consistent with other trust models found in the literature. Overall, the study sheds light on consumers' vulnerability to attack by hackers posing as a legitimate site     

Assessing and managing e-commerce service convenience

Due to the burgeoning growth of electronic commerce (EC or e-commerce), online shopping has become a key competitive strategy for online retailers (e-retailers) to attract more customers, expand market boundaries, and create more benefits. Service convenience (SERVCON), a concept of benefit and related to customer satisfaction and retention, has received increasing attention and is now treated as an important factor in shopping behavior. Unfortunately, the literature on convenience has explored only traditional retailers. Thus, this research attempts to apply the results of marketing and information management (IM) research concerning customer service convenience with e-retailers. Based on a survey of 304 online shoppers (e-shoppers) in Taiwan, a 14-item e-commerce service convenience (EC-SERVCON) instrument was constructed. We then construct an EC-SERVCON managerial grid for managers to use in formulating strategy for improving service convenience. The instrument, findings, and implications of this study will be valuable to researchers and practitioners interested in designing, implementing, and managing e-commerce.     

Determinants of repurchase intention in online group-buying: The perspectives of DeLone & McLean IS success model and trust

The purpose of this study is to propose a theoretical model to examine the antecedents of repurchase intention in online group-buying by integrating the perspective of DeLone & McLean IS success model and the literature of trust. The model was tested using the data collected from 253 customers of a group-buying website in Taiwan. The results show that satisfaction with website, satisfaction with sellers, and perceived quality of website have positive influences on repurchase intention, while perceived quality of website and perceived quality of sellers have significant impacts on satisfaction with website and satisfaction with sellers, respectively. The results also show that trust in website has positive influences on perceived quality of website and satisfaction with website, whereas trust in sellers influence perceived quality of sellers and satisfaction with sellers significantly. Finally, the results show that perceived size of website has positive influence on trust in website, while reputation of website and reputation of sellers significantly affect trust in website and trust in sellers, respectively. The implications for theory and practice and suggestions for future research are also discussed.     

The role of trust in e-commerce relational exchange: A unified model

Recently, studies of B2C e-commerce have used intention theory to understand the role of trust of Internet transactions but most have investigated only a component of e-commerce (e.g., initial adoption or continuance) and neglected the role of good relations with the consumer in ensuring a successful sustained relationship. Therefore, a model that went beyond intention and included key relational concepts (satisfaction, value, loyalty, etc.) was developed. Trust and its components are a major part of this model, which was based on strong theoretical foundations. Fifteen hypotheses were formulated. Data on the constructs were collected from 420 respondents and analyzed using elliptical re-weighted least squares as the estimation method to test model validity and the hypotheses. An additional relationship between satisfaction and customer loyalty was investigated. Implications for researchers and practitioners are discussed.     

Factors affecting members' trust belief and behaviour intention in virtual communities

In this research we investigate whether antecedent factors of participant trust and institutional trust significantly influence members' trust belief towards virtual communities. Further, we investigate how members' trust levels affect their behaviour intention. A model of factors that affect members' trust in virtual communities is constructed. We analysed 625 valid online questionnaires obtained from virtual communities related to travel, games, and computer information. The findings suggest that benefit attraction and shared value have significant positive effects on building participant trust, and monitoring has a significant positive effect on building institutional trust. Trust building influences both members' stickiness in virtual communities and their willingness to share information. This research suggests that the extent to which members trust community-based website environments significantly influences their practical behaviour in such environments.     

The moderating effect of gender on relationship quality and loyalty toward Internet service providers

Relationship quality – based on Commitment–Trust theory – can explain and predict the success of a relationship between an ISP and its customers, measured in terms of loyalty. We proposed a model to express the relationship and included gender as a moderator in the relationship. We then developed a questionnaire to test the model empirically and used a sample in Spain to check its validity and reliability. Analysis provided strong support for our hypotheses that gender exerted a significant moderating role on our model relationships. The influence of trust on commitment and of commitment on loyalty was significantly stronger for females than males, while the effects of satisfaction on commitment and of trust on loyalty were significantly stronger for males. Implications were drawn for practitioners.     

Exploring the antecedents of trust in virtual communities

Although previous research has established that interpersonal trust and system trust are critical in shaping individual behaviour in virtual settings, the two perspectives have not been examined by IS researchers in virtual communities (VCs) simultaneously. Drawing from prior literature on trust and VCs, a research model for understanding the importance of trust in members and trust in system and their antecedents in VCs is presented. Six trust-building factors were identified using three trust-building bases (calculative base, relationship base and technology base). Data were collected from 324 members of a technical VC to test the model. The study shows that trust in members and trust in system have significant influences on knowledge sharing intention. The study also indicates that knowledge growth, perceived responsiveness and shared vision affect trust in members positively, while knowledge quality influences trust in system significantly. The study discusses the theoretical and managerial implications of this study and proposes several future research directions.     

Impacts of employee participation and trust on e-business readiness, benefits, and satisfaction

An increasing number of firms have invested large sums in implementing electronic business (e-business). Nowadays, while the e-businesses are fostering rapid industrial growth, employees are the one who factually engage with information exchange, communication and support e-business processes. However, prior literature has paid scant attention in determining e-business value and its drivers from employee perspective. Thus, the present study attempts to investigate how user participation and trust drives e-business value in terms of e-business readiness, e-business benefits, and e-business satisfaction. For this sake, data collected from 143 employees at Taiwanese IT related firms and analyzed with partial least square (PLS) structural equation approach reveal that trust and user participation were significant precursors of employee e-business satisfaction. The results strongly support the contention that trust directly affects e-business satisfaction, and indirectly affects it through e-business readiness and e-business benefits. The research model and findings will help managers implement e-business successfully and offer valuable references for researchers interested in developing related theories.     

Impact of the quality of information products on information system users' job satisfaction: an empirical investigation

Abstract. In recent years, researchers and practitioners have paid increasing attention to the effects of information systems on work-related outcomes. The purpose of the reported research is to investigate the influence of information systems on work-related outcomes. A model is derived from prior research that considers direct effects of quality of information product on job satisfaction along with indirect effects through role conflict and role ambiguity. Results from a field study of 368 users indicated that quality of information product has a positive relationship with job satisfaction. However, role ambiguity and role conflict mediated this relationship. A causal path model identified that quality of information product influenced job satisfaction through role conflict and role ambiguity. Role conflict and role ambiguity fully mediated the relationship between quality of information product and job satisfaction. The results identify the role of information systems in influencing users' work related outcomes. In view of the importance of job satisfaction in motivating employees, IS designers and researchers should pay greater attention to the need for designing quality systems that not only meet their primary information delivery objectives, but also take into account the task and organizational design issues that may influence the work environment of users.     

Understanding the role of gender in bloggers' switching behavior

Blog has become an increasingly popular form of social networking technology in recent years. Many world famous web sites (e.g., Microsoft, Yahoo!, and Google) are providing blog services on the Internet. Bloggers, therefore, can easily establish and maintain their blogs through such services. However, research on blogs' adoption and diffusion is rare. In this study, we attempt to study bloggers' post-adoption behaviors. We examine bloggers' intention to switch their blog services by building upon studies in the marketing and IS literature. Particularly, the role of gender is explored and an online survey is conducted to test the research model. Findings confirm that bloggers' intention to switch their blog services is strongly associated with three factors: satisfaction, sunk costs, and attractive alternatives. Meanwhile, moderating effects are found in gender, but not in sunk costs. Implications for both researchers and practitioners are provided.     

Effect of trust level on mobile banking satisfaction: a multi-group analysis of information system success instruments

Mobile banking is increasingly being used for banking service applications. However, few empirical studies have been conducted on mobile banking services. Therefore, the current study focuses on whether or not trust in mobile banking influences the relationship between customer satisfaction and perceptions of the system quality, information quality and information presentation of mobile banking. Using the partial least squares approach, the analysis reveals that information quality and system quality influence customer satisfaction, whereas information presentation does not have an effect on customer satisfaction. Moreover, the research model articulates how perceptions of the system quality, information quality and information presentation of mobile banking moderated by trust influence customer satisfaction with this type of service.     

Online buying perceptions in Spain: can gender make a difference?

Internet has led to radical changes in commercial relations and especially in consumer buying habits. Considering the peculiar characteristics of Internet shopping, it is difficult to engender consumer online trust and consumer face an adverse selection problem when having to choose the best web site to buy from. This problem may be mitigated by signaling the high-quality and good behavior of the e-vendor or by consumer satisfactory experiences. As gender can make differences in the decision-making processes of individuals, the purpose of this study is to find out if there are gender differences regarding the effect of three specific signals of quality—service quality, warranty, and security and privacy policies– on e-satisfaction and e-trust, and on the relation between satisfaction and trust. The research questions were tested using information gathered from Spanish online buyers and using structural equation modeling. Results suggest that suitable gender-based signaling strategies could conceivably be prepared in accordance with the target population, which holds interesting implications for both the academic and the professional world.     

Institutional boundaries and trust of virtual teams in collaborative design: An experimental study in a virtual world environment

Members of virtual teams often collaborate within and across institutional boundaries. This research investigates the effects of boundary spanning conditions on the development of team trust and team satisfaction. Two hundred and eighty-two participants carried out a collaborative design task over several weeks in a virtual world, Second Life. Multigroup structural equation modeling was used to examine our research model, which compares individual level measurement between two boundary spanning team conditions. The results indicate that trusting beliefs have a positive impact on team trust, which in turn, influences team satisfaction. Further, we found that, compared to cross-boundary teams, within-boundary teams exhibited not only higher trusting beliefs and higher satisfaction with the collaboration process but also a stronger relationship between team trust and team satisfaction. These results suggest that trust and group theories need to be interpreted in light of institutional affiliation and contextual variables. An important practical implication is that trust can be fostered in a virtual world environment and collaboration on complex tasks can be carried out effectively in virtual worlds. However, within-boundary virtual teams are preferred over cross-boundary virtual teams if satisfaction with the collaboration process is of the highest priority.     

How family support and Internet self-efficacy influence the effects of e-learning among higher aged adults – Analyses of gender and age differences

Gender and age differences in the effects of e-learning, including students’ satisfaction and Internet self-efficacy, have been supported in prior research. What is less understood is how these differences are shaped, especially for higher aged adults. This article examines the utility of family support (tangible and emotional) and Internet self-efficacy (general and communication) in predicting middle aged (aged 50–64) and older adults’ (over the age of 65) perceived effects of e-learning. A total of 290 adult participants aged over 50 who were registered in community college and senior learning center courses completed the measure of perceived family support, Internet self-efficacy and the effects of e-learning. By using structural equation modeling (SEM) and model invariance analysis, the results indicate that emotional family support plays a main role in predicting the effects of e-learning, mediated by general and communication Internet self-efficacy. Emotional family support has both direct and indirect influences on adults’ perceived effects of e-learning. Tangible support significantly predicts adults’ perceived effects of e-learning, mediated by Internet self-efficacy. Compared to male adult learners, female adults rely more on tangible family support for increasing their Internet self-efficacy. Similar patterns were presented by older participants. The similarities between women and older adults imply that the gender issue is not specifically related to sex itself, but relates to the complexity of the social context of these disadvantaged learners. The findings provide researchers, adult education practitioners and e-learning program planners with a direction towards understanding e-learning for middle and older aged adults.     

Online stickiness: its antecedents and effect on purchasing intention

Website stickiness, the website's ability to retain online customers and prolong his/her duration of each stay, is one of the key factors to e-commerce success. However, how to make customers stick around is still unclear to online retailers. This paper examines the antecedents as well as effect of customer's intention to stick on a website. A model is developed and tested using a survey of 434 web users. The results confirm that the web user's willingness to stick to a website is a strong predictor of his/her intention to transact. Web managers thus need to put emphasis on the creation of the website stickiness. The results of this study also suggest that the formation of the stickiness is affected by web user attitude towards a website, trust in a website and the quality of website content. Implications of these findings are discussed for researchers and practitioners.     

Effects of Font Size,Stroke Width,and Character Complexity on the Legibility of Chinese Characters

This study investigated the effects of font size, stroke width, and character complexity on the legibility of Chinese characters. A within‐subjects design experiment was employed. Thirty‐six subjects participated in the experiment and completed the character‐search tasks in the pseudo‐texts. The search time per target character, correct response number, and correct response rate were used to measure the legibility. The results indicated that the font size and character complexity had significant effects on the legibility, while the effect of stroke width was not significant. All the two‐way interactions among the three display factors had significant effects on the legibility. Stroke width is critical to the legibility for characters with high‐level complexity, whereas font size is the critical factor influencing the legibility for characters with low‐level complexity. The combination of 12pt font size and 1:10 stroke width resulted in the best legibility for both character complexity levels. The findings provide useful information for the font design of Chinese texts displayed on a visual display terminal to improve the legibility.     

Online Consumers’ Responses to Deal Popularity as an Extrinsic Cue

Deal popularity indicates the popularity of a product or service within a specific deal duration and is being used by many e-tailers in their websites/apps. While deal popularity is receiving increasing attention by academics and practitioners alike, its effect as an extrinsic cue remains under-researched. Using an experimental design, this study investigates the effect of deal popularity on expected service quality in an e-tailing environment. It is found that deal popularity influences service quality expectations for credence services, but not experience services. High deal popularity positively influences consumers’ intention to purchase and willingness to recommend credence services. E-tailers of services need to pay attention to deal popularity displayed for credence services and leverage on the positive effect it has on consumers.     

An information security knowledge sharing model in organizations

Knowledge sharing plays an important role in the domain of information security, due to its positive effect on employees' information security awareness. It is acknowledged that security awareness is the most important factor that mitigates the risk of information security breaches in organizations. In this research, a model has been presented that shows how information security knowledge sharing (ISKS) forms and decreases the risk of information security incidents. The Motivation Theory and Theory of Planned Behavior besides Triandis model were applied as the theoretical backbone of the conceptual framework. The results of the data analysis showed that earning a reputation, and gaining promotion as an extrinsic motivation and curiosity satisfaction as an intrinsic motivation have positive effects on employees' attitude toward ISKS. However, self-worth satisfaction does not influence ISKS attitude. In addition, the findings revealed that attitude, perceived behavioral control, and subjective norms have positive effects on ISKS intention and ISKS intention affects ISKS behavior. The outcomes also showed that organizational support influences ISKS behavior more than trust. The results of this research should be of interest to academics and practitioners in the domain of information security.     

speedTrust: a super peer-guaranteed trust model in hybrid P2P networks

To curb malicious behavior, researchers have proposed a lot of trust models for P2P networks, most of which, however, suffer from the problems of high complexity, bad scalability and huge overhead due to the iterative trust calculations and the global search for feedbacks. In this paper, we propose a super peer-guaranteed trust model, speedTrust, for hybrid P2P networks. Considering the fact that the quality of services and feedbacks is the most important factor directly impacting on a trust model’s availability, we establish a feedback guarantee relationship between the service requester and its super peer, as well as a service guarantee relationship between the service provider and its super peer before a transaction begins. Moreover, a peer’s reputations are calculated using its pledged reputations for its involved transactions without any iterative operations. These features largely reduce the trust model’s complexity while discouraging peers from behaving maliciously for fear of being punished. The simulation results show that the speedTrust model is effective and efficient in terms of the successful transaction rate, the ability in curbing malicious behavior and the complexity.     

Defining the drivers for accepting decision making automation in air traffic management

Air Traffic Management (ATM) operators are under increasing pressure to improve the efficiency of their operation to cater for forecasted increases in air traffic movements. One solution involves increasing the utilisation of automation within the ATM system. The success of this approach is contingent on Air Traffic Control Operators' (ATCOs) willingness to accept increased levels of automation. The main aim of the present research was to examine the drivers underpinning ATCOs' willingness to accept increased utilisation of automation within their role. Two fictitious scenarios involving the application of two new automated decision-making tools were created. The results of an online survey revealed traditional predictors of automation acceptance such as age, trust and job satisfaction explain between 4 and 7% of the variance. Furthermore, these predictors varied depending on the purpose in which the automation was to be employed. These results are discussed from an applied and theoretical perspective. STATEMENT OF RELEVANCE: Efficiency improvements in ATM are required to cater for forecasted increases in air traffic movements. One solution is to increase the utilisation of automation within Air Traffic Control. The present research examines the drivers underpinning air traffic controllers' willingness to accept increased levels of automation in their role.