The Trust Model for Consumers’ Online Shopping in Taiwan
Date Issued
2015
Date
2015
Author(s)
Lee, Ku-Yuan
Abstract
As the increasing demand of internet services, online shopping has become a main option in our life. Consumer trust, in particular, is the key factor in online shopping. However, not much research in Taiwan addressed both theoretical and practical aspects of consumer trust. This research integrated the theories of relationalism and individualism, as well as word of mouth, to establish a theoretical model of consumer trust in online shopping. A total of 1151 consumers completed a questionnaire based on our model. Multiple regression analysis and structural equation modeling were employed to verify the structural relationships and four main results were found. First, our model was fit, and better than the past model constructed only from the individualism perspective. Second, the trust transference from friends/peers and netizens should be included among the trust model. In addition, the institution-based trust was the most important foundation of online trust. Finally, the calculative-based trust and the knowledge-based trust were still the bases of our model. Therefore, we suggested that the relationalism perspective should be included in the model to understand the consumer trust in online shopping. It is implied that interpersonal networks should be extended to community networks in order to aptly describe word of mouth and other contemporary online shopping phenomenon. As observed from our model, consumer trust in online shopping are found to be greatly enhanced with the power of community.
Subjects
trust
online shopping
relationalism
word of mouth
peer influence
individualism
Type
thesis