The effects of trust assurance in initial consumer trust

• Main Author: Bernardo, Ezekiel L.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2017
• Subjects: Mobile commerce; Consumers
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/5704
• Institution: De La Salle University

Smartphone shopping applications are receiving growing attention in the current Philippine setting of m-commerce adoption and is expected to flourish given the worldwide transition towards digital economy. However, transactions over this platform is perceived riskier than buying in conventional stores making its usage more for browsing rather than purchasing thus impeding the goal and growth of the platform. A key strategy of online vendors to mitigate this is by displaying trust assurances aiming to deliver persuasive cues to create positive trust outlook. Several studies were scored to analyze its effectiveness, most of which demonstrated that the presence of trust assurances do influence consumer behavior. However, paucity exists since questions on what brought its effectiveness, how effect is achieved, and the extent of its effect is yet to be explored. This study sought to answer these by the Trust Assurance Design Analysis (TADA) model assessing the effectiveness of each design component in its direct effect to initial trust; extended by understanding the mediation process; and capping by analyzing the effect of consumer character for moderation respectively. The results suggest that four design factor of seal type, content, position, and phase is significant with the best configuration as third-party seal, featuring claim with data, positioned at the top, and is presented at home or checkout phase. As for the mediation, design component that attained early bottom-up attention and undergone extensive top down processed attained is recommended. As for the moderation, user with high knowledge and experience attained equally high initial trust for any seal type and content respectively while low trust disposition users attained lower overall initial trust. From the results, managerial recommendations for design is directed fueled by the mediation reasons and moderation effect and theoretical implications is suggested to expand the current limitation of the study.