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Abstract
We developed a model of consumer-to-consumer (C2C) e-commerce trust and tested it. We expected that two influences: internal (natural
propensity to trust [NPT] and perception of web site quality [PWSQ]) and external (others trust of buyers/sellers [OTBS] and third party
recognition [TPR]) would affect an individuals trust in C2C e-commerce. However contrary to studies of other types of e-commerce, support
was only found for PWSQ and TPR; we therefore discussed possible reasons for this contradiction. Suggestions are made of ways to help ecommerce site developers provide a trustworthy atmosphere and identify trustworthy consumers.
# 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Electronic commerce; C2C; Trust; Electronic markets and auctions
1. Introduction
Consumer-to-consumer (C2C) e-commerce, which
includes the use of online auctions, web forums, chat
rooms, and third party consumer listings, has been found to
be more popular than the business-to-consumer (B2C) ecommerce counterpart [41]. Differences have been found
between C2C e-commerce and B2C e-commerce in previous
research suggesting that B2C e-commerce methods cannot
be utilized in C2C e-commerce [16]. C2C e-commerce has
thus proven to be a distinct area of research, requiring new
models of operation.
Mayer et al. [21] defined trust as the willingness of a
party to be vulnerable to the actions of another party based
on the expectation that the other party will perform a
particular action important to the trustor, irrespective of the
ability to monitor or control that other party. Trust is
related to competence, responsibility, dependability, likeability, and honesty [36], and is important because it helps
consumers overcome perceptions of uncertainty and risk and
use online transactions. E-commerce is still a relatively new
concept to most people and since trust increases with
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 918 631 2945; fax: +1 918 631 2164.
E-mail address: kiku-jones@utulsa.edu (K. Jones).
0378-7206/$ see front matter # 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.im.2007.12.002
89
Experts have speculated that the biggest threat to ecommerce is not the security of personal information but the
perceptions of consumers [31]. McKnight et al. suggested
that an individuals perceptions of the environment would
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91
Table 1
NPT construct factor analysis
Natural propensity to trust
In general, people really do care about the well-being of others.
The typical person is sincerely concerned about the problems of others.
Most of the time, people care enough to try to be helpful, rather than just looking out for themselves.
In general, most folks keep their promises
I think people generally try to back-up their words with their actions
Most people are honest in their dealings with others
I usually trust people until they give me a reason not to trust them
I generally give people the benefit of the doubt when I first meet them
My typical approach is to trust new acquaintances until they prove I should not trust them
Cronbachs alpha
Eigenvalue
Variance explained
Loadings
.81
.86
.84
.68
.68
.52
.11
.13
.05
.83
3.59
39.9%
.09
.02
.01
.06
.14
.20
.89
.87
.91
.88
2.18
24.3%
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Table 2
PWSQ construct factor analysis
Perception of web site quality
The C2C e-commerce site I use is of
high quality
The likely quality of the C2C e-commerce
site I use is extremely high
The C2C e-commerce site I use must be
of very good quality
The C2C e-commerce site I use appears to
be of very poor quality
Cronbachs alpha
Eigenvalue
Variance explained
Table 4
TPR construct factor analysis
Loadings
.93
.81
.80
.81
.86
2.81
70.3%
Table 3
OTBS construct factor analysis
Others trust of buyer/seller
A friend recommending a seller/buyer in C2C
e-commerce reduces my risk in the transaction
A person from my online community (i.e., groups
with whom I interact online) recommending a
seller/buyer in C2C e-commerce reduces my
risk in the transaction
An online acquaintance (i.e., one with whom I
regularly chat online) recommending a
seller/buyer in C2C e-commerce reduces
my risk in the transaction
Cronbachs alpha
Eigenvalue
Variance explained
Loadings
.93
.93
.84
1.73
86.6%
Loadings
.78
.88
.83
.77
2.05
68.5%
Table 5
C2C trust construct factor analysis
C2C Trust
C2C e-commerce is unreliable
C2C e-commerce cannot be trusted, there are
just too many uncertainties
In general, I cannot rely on C2C e-commerce
buyers/sellers to keep the promises that they make
Anyone trusting C2C e-commerce is asking for trouble
Cronbachs alpha
Eigenvalue
Variance explained
Loadings
.90
.91
.92
.78
.90
3.08
77.1%
Table 6
Regression on C2C Trust
Independent variable
Parameter estimate
S.E.
VIF
Relevant hypothesis
0.05
.54
0.09
0.45
0.20
0.16
0.13
0.16
0.24
3.30
0.67
2.80
0.81
0.002*
0.51
0.007*
1.07
2.01
1.10
1.20
Overall model fit: p = 0.014**; R2 = 0.24; *p < .01; **p < 0.05.
5. Discussion
Regression analysis was performed to test the relationships between the construct variables and C2C trust.
Residual plots were reviewed for non-random scatter about
the zero line. No heteroscedasticity was found in the data.
Variance inflation factors (VIF) were examined for each of
the independent variables in the model. All values were
small (below 3) suggesting there is no problem with
multicollinearity in the data.
Table 6 shows the regression results on C2C trust using
the four independent constructs. Support was only found for
H1b and H2b. The R2 value is 0.24, indicating that additional
variables may need to be considered for C2C e-commerce
trust.1
1
In addition, the regression was run excluding the data from the 12
respondents who said they had never participated in C2C e-commerce. The
results were consistent with the above analysis showing PWSQ and TPR to
have a significant impact on C2CT.
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7. Limitations
One limitation may be the generalizability of our findings.
Student subjects were considered appropriate in our study; but
a different group may produce different results.
One other limitation is that buyers and sellers of C2C ecommerce were evaluated together in this study. There were
more buyers of C2C e-commerce than sellers in our sample.
It may be that a separation of these two groups would lend
different results.
In addition, the majority of the respondents have used
online auctions, but not the other types of C2C e-commerce
venues. It is possible that these findings reflect more of a trust
of online auctions rather than C2C e-commerce in general.
One final limitation is the small R2 that was produced.
This can be an indication that additional variables were
needed.
8. Conclusion
C2C e-commerce trust is different from B2C e-commerce
trust. We found that only perception of web site quality and
third party recognition influenced C2C e-commerce trust.
Therefore, consumers and C2C web sites should focus on
web site quality and third party institutions in order to
improve trust in them and to potentially improve their
transaction volume to consumers.
References
[1] S. Ba, P.A. Pavlou, Evidence of the effect of trust building technology
in electronic markets: price premiums and buyer behavior, MIS
Quarterly 26, 2002, pp. 243268.
[2] G.E. Bolton, E. Katok, A. Ockenfels, How effective are electronic
reputation mechanisms? An experimental investigation Management
Science 50, 2004, pp. 15871602.
95
[41] K. Wang, E.T.G. Wang, C.-F. Tai, A study of online auction sites in
Taiwan: product, auction rule, and trading type, International Journal
of Information Management 22, 2002, pp. 127142.
[42] W. Wang, I. Benbasat, Trust in and adoption of online recommendations agents, Journal of the Association for Information Systems 6,
2005, pp. 72101.
[43] Wikipedia, Discriminant validity, Retrieved September 18, 2007, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discriminant_validity, 2007.
[44] H. Yamamoto, K. Ishida, T. Ohta, Modeling reputation management
system on online C2C market, Computational and Mathematical
Organization Theory 10, 2004, pp. 165178.
Kiku Jones is an Assistant Professor of Management Information Systems at the University of
Tulsa. Dr. Jones received her Ph.D. from the
University of Kentucky and is a member of the
Association for Information Systems, Decision
Sciences Institute, and Information Resources
Management Association. Her research interests
include knowledge management, electronic commerce, C2C commerce, and IS strategy. Her
publications have appeared in International Journal of Information Management, Journal of Computer Information Systems,
Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations, and Knowledge and
Process Management, and various Conference Proceedings.
Lori N.K. Leonard is an Associate Professor of
Management Information Systems at the University of Tulsa. Dr. Leonard received her Ph.D.
from the University of Arkansas and is a member
of the Association for Information Systems and
the Decision Sciences Institute. Her research
interests include electronic commerce, ethics in
computing, C2C commerce, and online trust. Her
publications have appeared in Journal of the
Association for Information Systems, Journal
of Computer Information Systems, Journal of End User Computing, Information and Management, Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce, as well as in other journals, and Proceedings of various
Conferences.