The effect of web communities on consumers' initial trust in B2C e‐commerce websites

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to test the effectiveness of the mere integration of social network applications to provide a signal concerning the “trustworthiness” of an unfamiliar e‐vendor in order to enhance subsequent purchase intentions. Design/methodology/approach To investigate the impact of web communities on consumers' initial trust beliefs (i.e. ability, benevolence and integrity), a 2×3 between‐subjects full factorial online experiment was carried out, using a fictitious web site for a gift gadgets selling company, manipulating it for inclusion or exclusion of a “social networking site”, and for inclusion or exclusion of “a corporate blog (text only blog, photo and text blog, or no blog)”. Data were obtained from 226 online shoppers. Findings Although the authors could not reveal any effects of the integration of social network applications on “ability” beliefs, it was possible to demonstrate their capacity to “signal” “benevolence” and “integrity”, which in turn have a significant impact on purchase intentions. Unfamiliar e‐retailers may foster perceptions of “integrity” by utilizing text‐blogs into their web sites, but they should avoid embedding facial photos of shop representatives in the blog. If e‐retailers want to make use of “a corporate blog with facial photo”, it is recommended to combine it with the integration of a social networking site such as Facebook in order to boost perceptions of “benevolence”. Research limitations/implications The simple i…