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This paper aims to solve the problem of information overload and reduce search costs. It proposes a social e-commerce online reputation formation model and community state-introduced model. A system dynamics trend simulation has been run to capture the relationship among the sellers, buyers, social e-commerce platforms and external environment to obtain an online reputation.

Empirical research relating to social e-commerce reputation has been used to confirm the influencing factors in social e-commerce, and a conceptual framework is developed for social e-commerce reputation formation. Thereafter, a trend simulation is generated to classify the relationship among the factors based on system dynamics. Also, the improved algorithm for community detection and a state-introduced model based on a Markov network are proposed to achieve better network partition for better online reputation management.

The empirical model captures the interaction effect of social e-commerce reputation and the state-introduced model to guide community public opinion and improve the efficiency of social e-commerce reputation formation. This helps minimize searching cost thereby improving social e-commerce reputation construction and management.

There is no appropriate online reputation system to be constructed to test the relationship proposed in the study for a field experiment. Also, deeper investigation for the nodes’ attributes in social networks should be made in future research. Besides, researchers are advised to explore measurement for the reputation of a given seller by using social media data as from Twitter or micro blogs.

Investigations that study online reputation in the social e-commerce are limited. The empirical research figured out the factors which can influence the formation of online reputation in social e-commerce. An SD model was proposed to explain the factors interaction and trend simulation was run. Also, a state-introduced model was proposed to highlight the effect of nodes’ attributes on communities’ detection to give a deeper investigation for the online reputation management.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the motivational process underlying users’ intention to provide feedback on user-contributed knowledge in professional online communities. User feedback can serve as a means of indicating the credibility of the online content, which can help community members in their knowledge-seeking process. Adopting such a user feedback mechanism is beneficial for users to identify relevant and credible content efficiently and for an online community to sustain itself.

Drawing on self-determination theory, an integrated model is proposed. In this model, behavioural intention is defined as the consequence of motivational orientations whose antecedences include various social factors. The model is empirically tested using survey data collected online and the structural equation modelling techniques.

The results show that users’ intention to provide feedback is primarily influenced by autonomous motivation. Autonomous motivation is in turn affected by social factors, including reciprocity, online reputation, trust in the user involvement mechanisms and affective and normative community commitments.

This study adds value to prior studies by stressing the significance and feasibility of user feedback in helping members of professional online communities with their knowledge-seeking process. It also contributes to the literature on user participation in these communities by showing the efficacy of a motivational process perspective and the role of motivational orientations, in particular, in explaining users’ behavioural intention.

This paper aims to analyze Nigerian Letter scam emails in the context of processes of globalization in order to understand how and why they continue to defraud people despite the increased public awareness.

This paper analyses over 500 emails received in an institutional email box over a nine-year period. Distinct rhetorical strategies for conveying trust and reputation were identified as indicators of the global connectedness of scammers and their victims.

Scammers from Third World countries and their First World victims share similar perceptions of trust and business reputation due to the global financial flows and transnational movement of people and labour, which is strengthened by the internet. They have transformed the rhetorical elements that establish trust and reputation within the Western rational context and imbued them with new value meanings intended to defraud their victims.

This paper is the first to interpret the success of Nigerian Letter scams as a product of processes that go beyond scammers' and their victims' social and political realities. It is valuable for crime-fighting organizations because it accounts not only for the rhetorical strategies used by the scammers but also for the underlying context that enables the spread and success of the online Confidence Letter scams.

Institutional and commercial web profiles that provide biobibliographic information about researchers are used for promotional purposes but also as information sources. In the latter case, the profiles' (re)presentations of researchers may be used to assess whether a researcher can be trusted. The article introduces a conceptual framework of how trust in researchers may be formed based on how the researchers' experiences and achievements are mobilized on the profiles to tell a multifaceted story of the “self.”

The framework is an analytical product which draws on theories of trust as well as on previous research focused on academic web profiles and on researchers' perceptions of trust and credibility. Two dimensions of trust are identified as central to the theoretical construction of trust, namely competence and trustworthiness.

The framework outlines features of profile content and narrative that may influence the assessment of the profile and of the researcher's competence and trustworthiness. The assessment is understood as shaped by the frames of interpretation available to a particular audience.

The framework addresses the lack of a trust perspective in previous research about academic web profiles. It provides an analysis of how potential trust in the researcher may be formed on the profiles. An innovative contribution is the acknowledgement of both qualitative and quantitative indicators of trustworthiness and competence, including the richness of the story told about the “self.”

In this study, the authors examine how organizational-, systems- and interpersonal-level trust may be required for a smooth functioning of the firms in the sharing economy (SE). The research objective is to explore the trust-building mechanisms of Airbnb, a leading SE organization, and its aim to foster generalized trust. An investigation of the Airbnb's promotion of different trust-building mechanisms will allow to evaluate their effectiveness in how they can help overcome scepticism and distrust between the transacting parties. Consequently, the authors can develop a unique theoretical perspective on generalized trust in SE environments and better understand any trust-related barriers preventing SE transactions.

The authors employ a case study approach to investigate the research questions with the aim to fully understand the abstract and complex nature of trust. They focus on Airbnb as the company enjoys a leading market position, being a sharing economy firm. Moreover, the personal nature of accommodation sharing, which is the business of Airbnb, increases users' trust requirements, and so the company must take active steps to promote trust between the transacting parties. The authors adopt thematic analysis to execute the data analysis of the study's findings, which are derived from emergent themes and directed by the research objectives and relevant literature.

The results show that users of Airbnb are concerned about the danger of opportunistic hosts, although they are primarily motivated to use the company's services due to its economic benefits. Nevertheless, the success of Airbnb platform stems from the trust that the company has succeeded in establishing among its users, in particular interpersonal trust. Analysis reveals that generalized trust is fostered at an interpersonal level in the form of peer reviews, at an organizational level in terms of brand familiarity and at a systems level in regards to interface design.

The authors advance the argument that confidence to transact in the social economy stems from a combination of three levels of trust, including organizational-, systems- and interpersonal-level trust. These findings contribute to the body of trust research in information technology and people literature from its unique investigative setting, whilst simultaneously strengthening the primarily speculative research on SE with in-depth empirical evidence.

This study aims to investigate the perceptions of academics regarding the use and usefulness of academic social networks (ASNs) in the scholarly communication practices of faculty members in Kuwaiti Universities.

The study was conducted through a survey. In total, 100 faculty members from the disciplines of business administration, humanities and social sciences from three universities in Kuwait filled in an online questionnaire. The statistical feature of the Web-based tool was used for data analysis.

The results show that most faculty members are aware of the importance of ASNs. They perceive that these networks are useful, as more publications have become available, it has become easier for scholars to connect with colleagues who share similar research interests.

The study is descriptive and restricted to a specific country (Kuwait). It also only covered faculty members from three academic disciplines. Furthermore, the use of a questionnaire, while appropriate for descriptive research, restricted us from conducting probing designed to gain deeper insights regarding participants’ motivations and explanations for not realizing the potential of these networks.

Future research should expand the scope of this study to cover faculty members from other disciplines (e.g. science, engineering and medicine), while also including more universities from other countries in the Arabian Gulf region. Future research should also examine how academics’ information-finding practices are changing as a result of the availability of information sources through ASNs.

No similar study has been conducted previously in Kuwait. This study provided useful information regarding the use and perceptions of ASNs in the context of faculty members of Kuwaiti universities. This information is of interest to scholars, information providers and those who design such networks.

The purpose of this paper is to explore and analyse interfaces between scholarly and science communication practices by using the production of open letters on climate change as a point of departure. Furthermore, the paper highlights an understudied form of science communication – open letters.

The material consists of nine open letters on climate change, written and signed by academics and published in 2018–2019, as well as 13 semi-structured interviews with the initiators and co-authors of the letters. The interviews were analysed by qualitative thematic analysis and grouped into thematic clusters.

The study finds that three practices used in scholarly communication – more specifically: peer review, professional community building and, to a certain extent, communication as “merit-making” – are central in the making of the open letters, illustrating an integration of scholarly communication practices in academic science communication activities.

The study suggests that the conflation of communication practices needs to be seen in relation to larger structural changes in the academic working environment, as well as in relation to the specific environment in which communication about climate change occurs.

This study contends that the proposed conflation between scholarly and science communication concerns not only texts and genres but also practices integral to contemporary science, thereby conflating the forms of communication at a practical level.

The purpose of this paper is to identify whether altruistic motivation is a significant factor in online group buying and to examine the effects of altruistic and egotistic motivation on online group buying intention through the psychological processes of trust and satisfaction.

A field study on Ihergo (www.ihergo.com/) was chosen because it is the largest online group buying marketplace in Taiwan. An online survey method was used to collect data. Returned questionnaires numbered 302 responses with 20 incomplete data, resulting in 282 valid responses for data analysis. Collected data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

The findings of the study shows that altruism is relevant to online group buying, and trust and satisfaction have significantly positive effects on online group buying intention. The results emphasize that altruism, reciprocity, and reputation of motivations are significantly positive predictors of trust. Altruism and reciprocity have significantly positive effects on satisfaction, whereas reputation does not.

Altruism, reciprocity, and reputation represent three key elements of online group buying behavior. Integration of the altruism, reciprocity, and reputation results in a better explanation on online group buying intention through the psychological process, trust, and satisfaction. This study extends the value of online group buying and sheds light on the potential effects of altruistic and egotistic motivation on online group buying intention.

Online group buying is more complex than individual online shopping and is not easy to fulfill customer requirements. To satisfy online group buying, e-vendors might provide altruistic activities, enhance reciprocal services and products, develop better reputation mechanisms, and present an easier approach to encourage online group buying on the web site.

To the best of the knowledge, this is first paper to examine the effects of altruism on online group buying. The contribution of this study draws attention to the altruistic value of electronic commerce, by theorizing and validating the effects of altruistic and egotistic motivation on online group buying intention through psychological processes (trust and satisfaction).

The purpose of this paper is to identify the practices that owners of public profiles in social networking sites can leverage to actively build online reputation and to evaluate the impact of the adoption of such practices on the initial formation of trust toward these individuals when they are presented as new virtual work partners.

A theoretical model was developed and an experiment with 233 participants was utilized to assess the model using partial least squares structural equation modeling.

The results suggest that individuals can build their online reputations in public profiles of social networking sites via a series of practices of self-disclosure of information and that the adoption of these practices has significant effects on the initial formation of trust toward the profile owner in virtual work contexts. Categorization mechanisms such as stereotyping, unit grouping and reputation categorization have been found to contribute to the initial formation of trust, both from an affect and cognition-based perspectives.

Little is known about the information disclosure practices in public profiles of social networking sites that new work partners can adopt to facilitate the formation of trust between them before they start working together. This study has contributed to the existing body of literature by clarifying these practices and the relative importance of online reputation to the initial formation of trust during the outset of a new virtual work relationship.