Title: Promoting trust in B2B virtual organisations through business and technological infrastructures

Authors: Ioannis Ignatiadis, Adomas Svirskas, Bob Roberts, Konstantinos Tarabanis

Addresses: Centre for Research and Technology Hellas, Informatics and Telematics Institute (CERTH-ITI), 1st Km Thermi-Panorama Road, Thermi-Thessaloniki, GR-57001, Greece. ' Centre for Applied Research in Information Systems (CARIS), Kingston University, Faculty of Computing, Information Systems and Mathematics, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey KT1 2EE, UK. ' Centre for Applied Research in Information Systems (CARIS), Kingston University, Faculty of Computing, Information Systems and Mathematics, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey KT1 2EE, UK. ' Centre for Research and Technology Hellas, Informatics and Telematics Institute (CERTH-ITI), 1st Km Thermi-Panorama Road, Thermi-Thessaloniki, GR-57001, Greece

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to propose ways to increase the level of trust in online Business-to-Business (B2B) communities, through the use of business and technological schemes. From the business point of view, two mechanisms are proposed: (1) the use of Service Level Agreements, special forms of contracts popular in the provision of IT services industry, which can be introduced to cover all legal and non-legal requirements of online trading; and (2) the establishment of Support Centres, which can act as intermediaries between companies in case of dispute, and which can guarantee the trustworthiness of the companies involved in e-commerce. From the technological point of view, the use of a peer-to-peer approach in B2B e-commerce is discussed. From an empirical perspective, the work within the framework of the European Union co-funded research project |LAURA| is presented.

Keywords: virtual organisations; business-to-business; B2B; e-commerce; electronic business; trust; service level agreements; support centers; peer-to-peer architecture; online communities; web-based communities; online trading; trustworthiness; networking.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNVO.2006.011868

International Journal of Networking and Virtual Organisations, 2006 Vol.3 No.4, pp.395 - 411

Published online: 28 Dec 2006 *

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