Article: What makes websites trustworthy? A two-phase empirical study Journal: International Journal of Electronic Business (IJEB) 2005 Vol.3 No.2 pp.110 - 136 Abstract: Trustworthiness has been cited as one of the most important factors in the completion of commercial transactions, and this is also true for internet commerce systems. In the internet commerce environment, people do business by interacting with a customer interface which, in this case, is an internet vendor|s website. Thus, websites must be designed carefully to induce feelings of trust on the part of the customer, which will influence the decision to buy from a specific vendor. The objective of this research was to identify website design features that have significant effect on customer trust in internet shopping. A two-phase empirical study was conducted. In Phase I, respondents were asked to rate the importance of various website design features in terms of their trust for internet shopping. Forty six features were identified and grouped into nine categories. In Phase II, a different group of respondents were asked to decide whether each of these 46 features and nine categories was a Hygiene factor (i.e., a ||must have|| factor, without which a customer would certainly feel distrustful), or a Motivator (i.e., a ||good to have|| factor, without which a customer would not feel distrustful, but which, if present, could increase the customer|s perception of trustworthiness). Inderscience Publishers - linking academia, business and industry through research

Title: What makes websites trustworthy? A two-phase empirical study

Authors: Pimmanee Rattanawicha, Vatcharaporn Esichaikul

Addresses: Faculty of Commerce and Accountancy, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330, Thailand. ' School of Advanced Technologies, Asian Institute of Technology, Pathumthani 12120, Thailand

Abstract: Trustworthiness has been cited as one of the most important factors in the completion of commercial transactions, and this is also true for internet commerce systems. In the internet commerce environment, people do business by interacting with a customer interface which, in this case, is an internet vendor|s website. Thus, websites must be designed carefully to induce feelings of trust on the part of the customer, which will influence the decision to buy from a specific vendor. The objective of this research was to identify website design features that have significant effect on customer trust in internet shopping. A two-phase empirical study was conducted. In Phase I, respondents were asked to rate the importance of various website design features in terms of their trust for internet shopping. Forty six features were identified and grouped into nine categories. In Phase II, a different group of respondents were asked to decide whether each of these 46 features and nine categories was a Hygiene factor (i.e., a ||must have|| factor, without which a customer would certainly feel distrustful), or a Motivator (i.e., a ||good to have|| factor, without which a customer would not feel distrustful, but which, if present, could increase the customer|s perception of trustworthiness).

Keywords: customer trust; website design; electronic commerce; e-commerce; internet commerce; internet shopping; hygiene factors; motivators; trustworthiness; design features; web design; internet.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEB.2005.006906

International Journal of Electronic Business, 2005 Vol.3 No.2, pp.110 - 136

Published online: 21 Apr 2005 *

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Title: What makes websites trustworthy? A two-phase empirical study

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