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E‐retailing has received considerable attention in recent years, especially with the help of consumer behaviour concepts and tools. This particular paper focuses on e‐trust and its antecedents. Special attention is given to the proposition that the more a site is perceived to be interactive, then the greater the trust that users attach to that site. Previous research has demonstrated this relationship with respect to a particular site. The current paper re‐examines this relationship with respect to another site. More importantly, the paper tests whether the nexus between interactivity and e‐trust applies to both pure “click” and “brick and click” e‐retailers.

The objective of this paper is to examine online brand relationships, and the linkage between satisfaction, trust, and loyalty on the web site level. The web site is considered to be an extension of the parent brand. It also seeks to explore the effects of offline experiences on web site‐level experiences.

Hierarchical regression analysis is applied in order to test the hypotheses. The data are based on an online survey (n=867) conducted on a Finnish consumer‐magazine web site.

The research findings support the results of earlier studies suggesting that satisfaction and trust on the web site level are determinants of web site loyalty. However, they also show that brand‐level experiences affect online satisfaction, trust, and loyalty differently, depending on the consumers' relationship with the brand. Interestingly, in this case the length of user history and registration on the web site had a negative effect on web site trust. Two of the reasons behind this type of result are believed to be the prevalent culture in web site discussion forums and the degree of fit between the parent brand and the brand extension.

The paper synthesises the literature on online and offline brand relationships and brand extension. The results of the study, which was based on a large‐scale survey, give researchers and practising managers alike valuable information on how parent‐brand experiences relate to the attitudes and commitment of customers to online brand extensions. The context of the study, i.e. the magazine publishing industry, has attracted less research attention, even though several publishers have extended their brands online.

The challenge of pervasive computing consists in offering access to computing services anywhere and anytime with any devices. However, before it becomes a reality, the problems of access control and authentication have to be solved, among others. Existing solutions are inadequate without adaptation to this specific environment. Among the promising approaches, the trust paradigm seems to be more flexible than others. We base this proposal on this paradigm to implement a distrust model, so‐called APC (Access Pass Certificate). The main objective of this model is to enable authorized user to roam and to access trusted sites though they are not known locally. A user can claim two kinds of APCs provided by two kinds of sites: the home site (where the user has an account) and the trusted site (that trusts the user). Using these certificates, the user can progressively extend her access scope. This model implements a decentralized mapping policy, where the correspondence between the user’s home profile and her rights in the trusted sites is determined by the trusted site. This distrust model and its implementation are presented in this article where we exhibit its importance for large but controlled access in pervasive environments.

The purpose of this paper is to explore motivations that drive consumers’ purchase intention in social commerce, and then examine whether social presence can work as a moderator in this process.

A research model was developed based on stimulus-organism-response model by integrating trust, argument quality, social presence and purchase intention. Using the data collected from 288 valid online questionnaires, the proposed model was empirically assessed by partial least square (PLS) SEM.

The results show that trust toward social commerce site and trust toward site members are determinants of purchase intention, and the later one can be triggered by the argument quality of consumer-generated contents (perceived informativeness and perceived persuasiveness). Besides, consumers’ social presence has a moderating effect on the relationship between trust toward site members and purchase intention.

This study indicates a new mechanism of trust based on the context of social commerce. The findings will contribute to social commerce literature by offering a well proven conceptual model that facilitates the understanding of consumers’ purchase decision-making processes.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of consumers' perception of online retailers' ethical behavior on consumer purchase and revisit intentions.

A sample of 259 online shoppers was employed to test the relationships between perceived ethics of online retailers and the intention to revisit and purchase. The measurement model and structural relationships were estimated using AMOS 18.

Results show that perceived ethics of an Internet retailer's website significantly affect consumers' trust and attitudes to the retailer's website that eventually have positive impacts on purchase and revisit intentions. Website trust was positively related to attitude toward the site. The results do not show support for a direct effect between perceived ethics and behavioral intentions, but attitude and trust toward the website mediate these effects.

The findings support the idea that despite the physical distance between online retailers and customer, behaving ethically has an effect on revisit and purchase intentions. This suggests that online vendors should invest in methods that strengthen consumers' trust of websites. To convey a sense of ethics of the website, websites should ensure that privacy policies are easy to understand, explain clearly how customer information is used, offer secure payment methods, display clearly the terms and conditions of the online transactions, fulfill the orders, and avoid deceptive practices and exaggerations of product characteristics.

Research integrating perceived ethical conduct of retailers and consumer behavior is still in the beginning, and has not explored all outcomes of perceived ethics. This study is an initial attempt to investigate the effects of perceived ethics of retailers on revisit and purchase intentions. This study contributes to the knowledge of consumer perceived ethics and behavioral intentions.

Online trust is one of the key obstacles to vendors succeeding on the internet medium; a lack of trust is likely to discourage online consumers from participating in e‐commerce. This research aims to investigate how online consumers develop their initial trust and purchase intentions. The research in conducted in the context of Taiwanese online bookstores.

The research examines consumers' online initial trust by using four major categories of determinants: perceived technology, perceived risk, company competency, and trust propensity. It also investigates the impacts of both online initial trust and familiarity with online purchasing on purchase intention. The research model is statistically tested using the web sites of four online bookstores in Taiwan. The web site selected by each respondent is unfamiliar.

It is found that perceived usefulness, perceived security, perceived privacy, perceived good reputation, and willingness to customise are the important antecedents to online initial trust. It is also discovered that different levels of trust propensity moderate perceptions toward the web site and online with respect to online initial trust, including perceived usefulness, perceived security, perceived privacy, perceived good reputation, and willingness to customise. Both online initial trust and familiarity with online purchasing have a positive impact on purchase intention.

The research provides insight into the development of online initial trust by consumers, and the relationships between online initial trust and purchase intention. The research model was created and then tested in the context of online bookshops in Taiwan.

Web retailing is expected to grow at aggressive rates in future years, but lack of trust on the part of potential customers can impede this growth. So, as transactions through the Internet develop and mature, success will largely be dependent on gaining and maintaining this trust. It has been suggested that the quality of the user interface of the Web site is a determinant of the initial establishment of trust. Describes a study where 66 subjects were asked to perform some predefined book purchasing task in a series of sites with varying interface quality. A strong relationship between interface quality and trust was found and some components of user interface quality were more important than others. Discusses the implications for Web site design.

Consumers are increasingly connected to each other through electronic devices. Consequently, the potential for online retailer (hereafter, e‐tailer) initiated communications delivered through electronic media to inspire viral‐like e‐WOM processes among consumers is also expanding. Microblog postings and e‐mails may impact consumers' perceptions of retail web sites (e‐servicescape). These perceptions may trigger other outcomes (i.e. greater trust, patronage, or e‐WOM) that redound to e‐tailers' interests. The first purpose of this paper is to expand online e‐tailers' (e‐tailers') understanding of how and whether microblog postings affect consumers' e‐servicescape perceptions. The second purpose is to investigate how and whether e‐servicescape perceptions influence consumers' trust in e‐tailers' web sites, patronage of e‐tailers, and propensity to engage in e‐WOM about e‐tailers' messages.

By integrating the e‐servicescape construct with the Network Coproduction Model of WOM theory, a model is developed. This model examines how e‐communication efforts affect consumers' perceptions of e‐servicescape, trust, e‐tail patronage and e‐WOM. Each relationship is investigated through a consumer survey.

Findings suggest: microblog postings may have a negative impact on consumers' e‐servicescape perceptions; retail web site's usability, financial security, customization, and entertainment value positively affect consumers' trust; and consumers' trust positively impacts retail patronage and e‐WOM intentions.

Prescriptive insights for managing microblogging in ways that more favorably influence consumers' perceptions of e‐tailers' e‐servicescapes – and subsequently consumer trust in, patronage of, and e‐WOM about the retailer and its web site – are developed.

The paper is the first to integrate word‐of‐mouth theory with e‐servicescape to test a model examining how microblog postings affect e‐servicescape perceptions, consumer trust, consumer retail patronage, and e‐WOM intentions.

Social commerce websites have emerged as new platforms which integrate social media features with traditional commerce aspects to enhance users’ purchasing experience. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of social factors such as trust toward site members in determining users’ trust and risk evaluations, and the role of social commerce use habit in attenuating users’ rational risk and trust considerations for developing purchase intentions.

Relying on the risk deterrence perspective and rational decision-making models involving trust and habit, this study proposes a set of hypotheses which are tested through analyzing survey data using structural equation modeling techniques.

Results show that commerce risk deters purchasing intentions; trust toward the social commerce website increases users’ purchasing intentions; and trust toward the site members indirectly increases purchasing intentions. Moreover, trust toward site members reduces perceived commerce risk. Findings also show that habit modulates trust and risk effects on use decisions in this context; habit moderates (weakens) the relationships between commerce risk and purchase intentions and between trust toward the social commerce site and purchase intentions.

This study extends theories on decision making in social settings such as in the case of social commerce. It does so by accounting for unique modulating effects of habit in social settings in which social aspects such as trust in other members and risk are unique and important.

Since their inception, which took place more than two decades ago, product recommendation agents (RAs) still attract very few consumers. Notably, most of academic work in the field had an empirical quantitative structure. In addition, no research has developed a comprehensive model to explain the adoption and usage of commercial RAs. The purpose of this paper is to follow a qualitative approach to investigate the factors behind the adoption and usage of commercial RAs, explore the effect of user age, and deduce the success factors of these RAs.

This research followed a qualitative approach. Qualitative research aims to form an in‐depth understanding of human behavior. It is essential for building grounded theory and for proposing comprehensive models for future examination. As such, in four discussion groups, participants provided their input following the shopping trial for a product using a factual RA (MyProductAdvisor.com). Discussion groups were used because they outline an important aspect of qualitative research and because they are ideal for both the inception and development of products and services.

Underlying the major themes, the analysis first provides insight in consumers' RA use and the products consumers regard as adequate to be offered using a commercial RA. The analysis then delineates some important factors that can be considered by developers to enhance the usability and trustworthiness of commercial RAs. Further, the analysis suggested four higher‐order factors that can be considered the success factors of a commercial RA: users appear to require a commercial RA that is friendly, smart, trusted, and informational. The themes that emerged from participants in the youth and the older discussion groups were rather invariant.

This is one of the few qualitative studies that focused on commercial RAs. The commercial RA success factors and their determinants are summarized in the form of a general framework to guide future work. This qualitative work provides a cornerstone that is of importance to theory development in the field of intelligent RAs and assistive technology. The results have important implications for RAs' developers and researchers.