Our trust conceptualizations have benefited from discussions with Ellen Berscheid and Larry Cummings of the University of Minnesota. The authors also thank three anonymous reviewers from the Organizational Behavior division of the 1996 meeting of the Academy of Management for their comments on an earlier version of this paper. THE MEANINGS OF TRUST What does the word ‘trust ’ mean? Scholars continue to express concern regarding their collective lack of consensus about trust’s meaning. Conceptual confusion on trust makes comparing one trust study to another problematic. To facilitate cumulative trust research, the authors propose two kinds of trust typologies: (a) a classification system for types of trust, and (b) definitions of six related trust types that form a model. Some of the model’s implications for management are also outlined. 2 THE MEANINGS OF TRUST “...trust is a term with many meanings. ” (Williamson, 1993: 453) “Trust is itself a term for a clustering of perceptions. ” (White, 1992: 174) Scholars and practitioners widely acknowledge trust's importance. Trust makes cooperative endeavors happen (e.g., Arrow, 1974; Deutsch, 1973; Gambetta, 1988). Trust is a key to positive interpersonal relationships in

ABSTRACT: This paper aims to predict consumer acceptance of e-commerce by proposing a set of key drivers for engaging consumers in on-line transactions. The primary constructs for capturing consumer acceptance of e-commerce are intention to transact and on-line transaction behavior. Following the theory of reasoned action (TRA) as applied to a technology-driven environment, technology acceptance model (TAM) variables (perceived usefulness and ease of use) are posited as key drivers of e-commerce acceptance. The practical utility of TAM stems from the fact that e-commerce is technology-driven. The proposed model integrates trust and perceived risk, which are incorporated given the implicit uncertainty of the e-commerce environment. The proposed integration of the hypothesized independent variables is justified by placing all the variables under the nomological TRA structure and proposing their interrelationships. The resulting research model is tested using data from two empirical studies. The first, exploratory study comprises three experiential scenarios with 103 students. The second, confirmatory study uses a sample of 155 on-line consumers. Both studies strongly support the e-commerce acceptance model by validating the proposed hypotheses. The paper discusses the implications for e-commerce theory, research, and practice, and makes several suggestions for future research.

Despite the inherent risk arising from separating buyers and sellers, networked online marketplaces are proliferating. We describe how online auction marketplaces take advantage of institutional structures to build buyer trust in auction sellers, mitigate risk, increase satisfaction, and promote transaction intentions. It is hypothesized, based on institutional trust (Zucker 1986), that buyer trust in auction sellers can be increased, beyond past experience with sellers, through structural assurances, such as buyer-driven certification, auction house escrows, and credit card guarantees. We examined buyer transaction intentions, mediated by trusting beliefs, risk reduction, and satisfaction. The model is tested with 274 buyers in Amazon’s online auction marketplace. The results support the hypotheses, highlighting the importance of institution-based trust in online networks. Implications are discussed. Keywords: Institution-based trust, online auctions, institutional structures, certification, escrows, third-party guarantees

This is a careful and insightful case study of how the Toyota Production System manages the paradox of efficiency and flexibility, which arises periodically in connection with model changeovers. The authors detail the functioning of four organizational mechanisms—metaroutines, partitioning, switching, and ambidexterity. However, of particular interest is the contextual reinforcing role of training and trust in administrative structures, procedures, and rules.

Explaining how entrepreneurs overcome information asymmetry between themselves and potential investors to obtain financing is an important issue for entrepreneurship research. Our premise is that economic explanations for venture finance, which do not consider how social ties influence this process, are undersocialized and incomplete. However, we also argue that organization theoretic arguments, which draw on the concept of social obligation, are oversocialized. Drawing on the organizational theory literature, and in-depth fieldwork with 50 high-technology ventures, we examine the effects of direct and indirect ties between entrepreneurs and 202 seed-stage investors on venture finance decisions. We show that these ties influence the selection of ventures to fund through a process of information transfer. (Entrepreneurship; Venture Finance; Social Capital) Entrepreneurs are often wealth constrained, and need to obtain external financing to pursue their opportunities, making financing central to the process of entrepreneurship (Evans and Leighton 1989, Casson

ABSTRACT: In hybrid situations where artificial agents and human agents interact, the artificial agents must be able to reason about the trustworthiness and deceptive actions of their human counterpart. Thus a theory of trust and deception is needed that will support interactions between agents in virtual societies. There are several theories on trust (fewer on deception!), but none that deals specifically with virtual communities. Building on these earlier theories, the role of trust and deception in virtual communities is analyzed, with examples to illustrate the objectives a theory of trust should fulfill. KEY WORDS AND PHRASES: Deception, multiagent systems, trust, virtual society. The inhumanity of the computer is in the fact that once programmed and put to work, it behaves in a perfectly honest way. —Isaac Asimov Trust and Deception in Artificial Agents and Societies Electronic commerce can only succeed if the general public trusts the virtual environment. Trust, therefore, is an important issue [20, 25, 29, 44]. As is well

In this paper, we apply principles of trust derived mostly from interpersonal communication and human-computer interaction research to computer-mediated exchange (CME). We define key terms and synthesize relevant literature identifying four sources and seven dimensions of trust. Combining these sources and dimensions, we offer a trust taxonomy enabling trust analysis of exchange partners in CME. To demonstrate the usefulness of the taxonomy, we report on a case study in which we examined trust production methods in three exchange sites and compared the results.

Government Affairs and Policy This paper explores the dynamics of trust, collaboration, and knowledge sharing in the context of a multigovernmental, interorganizational project to design and implement a new information system. Drawing on research and a case study of a successful project, the authors construct a system dynamics model and simulate a base case scenario. They then explore several scenarios in which trust, knowledge of other agencies ’ work, and skill in meeting facilitation are varied, and they theorize about why certain facilitation attributes and objects can effectively build cross-boundary trust and collaboration. 1.

This article will counter that argument to show that trust is not redundant and is indeed indispensable for all economic action. It proposes that trust plays an important role in the relation between culture and economic growth. By "culture" we can mean a number of things (Kohnstamm 1998). The broadest concept is that of culture as opposed to nature: everything made by man. This includes art, law, customs and ethics, but also science and technology and also pollution, persecution and warfare. A second concept is culture as heritage: the stock of documented or otherwise embodied achievements from the history of civilization: arts, artifacts and documents. The anthropological concept of culture denotes the totality of norms and values developed in a certain group. This is the idea we have when talking about "multi-cultural communities". The sociological concept of culture denotes the habits and life styles that distinguish a group. Here one can talk, for example, of "youth culture". And finally, there is culture as art. When someone claims that the young lack culture, he can mean that the young have insufficient knowledge of our heritage, or that they lack the values and norms he is accustomed to, or that he objects to their life style, or that the young are insufficiently interested in art (or that he does not like their art) (Kohnstamm, op. cit.). The relation between trust and culture lies primarily in the anthropological and sociological meanings of culture. Trust is related to norms and values of conduct, and to habits and life styles; to normativity and habituation

This paper presents a model of interpersonal trust dynamics, grounded in a longitudinal case study of an interorganizational information technology development project in New York State 1. System dynamics is the simulation method selected in this theory-building effort, based on qualitative data collected by the Center for Technology in Government. The model integrates concepts from economic models, as well as psychological and sociological theories about trust, learning, and perceptual processes in interpersonal relations. The simulation experiments show plausible path dependent behaviors with the characteristic asymmetries between trust and distrust described both in the literature an in the case data. The role of trust and knowledge development in the success of these projects will be explored by combining models of sub processes into larger models of the overall collaboration. The value of the model as a theory building tool will be enhanced by extended data collection and combining with related process models.