The role of trust and assurance services in electronic channels: an exploratory study

This exploratory study addresses the impact of various conditions on the likelihood of purchase behavior of consumers in electronic channels. Trust and issues around privacy are considered main inhibitors of consumer buying on the Internet. To respond to trust and related privacy concerns, various parties have introduced socalled Web assurance services. The effect of such measures has not been addressed by many studies and has not been tested empirically in a controlled experiment. The likelihood of purchase in conducting a Web-based transaction is tested for a set of goods, with different vendor types, and assurance services. The results of the study show that there are significant differences in the likelihood of purchasing, the concern about privacy across vendor types, product types, and Web assurance seal providers.