Trust is a judgement of unquestionable utility — as humans we use it every day of our lives. However, trust has suffered from an imperfect understanding, a plethora of definitions, and informal use in the literature and in everyday life. It is common to say “I trust you, ” but what does that mean? This thesis provides a clarification of trust. We present a formalism for trust which provides us with a tool for precise discussion. The formalism is implementable: it can be embedded in an artificial agent, enabling the agent to make trust-based decisions. Its applicability in the domain of Distributed Artificial Intelligence (DAI) is raised. The thesis presents a testbed populated by simple trusting agents which substantiates the utility of the formalism. The formalism provides a step in the direction of a proper understanding and definition of human trust. A contribution of the thesis is its detailed exploration of the possibilities of future work in the area. Summary 1. Overview This thesis presents an overview of trust as a social phenomenon and discusses it formally. It argues that trust is: • A means for understanding and adapting to the complexity of the environment. • A means of providing added robustness to independent agents. • A useful judgement in the light of experience of the behaviour of others. • Applicable to inanimate others. The thesis argues these points from the point of view of artificial agents. Trust in an artificial agent is a means of providing an additional tool for the consideration of other agents and the environment in which it exists. Moreover, a formalisation of trust enables the embedding of the concept into an artificial agent. This has been done, and is documented in the thesis. 2. Exposition There are places in the thesis where it is necessary to give a broad outline before going deeper. In consequence it may seem that the subject is not receiving a thorough treatment, or that too much is being discussed at one time! (This is particularly apparent in the first and second chapters.) To present a thorough understanding of trust, we have proceeded breadth first in the introductory chapters. Chapter 3 expands, depth first, presenting critical views of established researchers.

ABSTRACT: Trust is a vital relationship concept that needs clarification because researchers across disciplines have defined it in so many different ways. A typology of trust types would make it easier to compare and communicate results, and would be especially valuable if the types of trust related to one other. The typology should be interdisciplinary because many disciplines research e-commerce. This paper justifies a parsimonious interdisciplinary typology and relates trust constructs to e-commerce consumer actions, defining both conceptual-level and operational-level trust constructs. Conceptual-level constructs consist of disposition to trust (primarily from psychology), institution-based trust (from sociology), and trusting beliefs and trusting intentions (primarily from social psychology). Each construct is decomposed into measurable subconstructs, and the typology shows how trust constructs relate to already existing Internet relationship constructs. The effects of Web vendor interventions on consumer behaviors are posited to be partially mediated by consumer trusting beliefs and trusting intentions in the e-vendor. KEY WORDS AND PHRASES: Customer relationships, human issues in e-commerce, Internet consumers, trust.

We propose a new theoretical framework for understanding simultaneous trust and distrust within relationships. grounded in assumptions of multidimensionality and the inherent tensions of relationships. and we separate this research from prior work grounded in assumptions of unidimensionality and balance. Drawing foundational support for this new framework from recent research on simultaneous positive and negative sentiments and ambivalence. we explore the theoretical and practical significance of the framework for future work on trust and distrust relationships within organizations.

ctive, and will ignore much of the fine detail in the attempt to frame a rather general picture. All of this will be prefaced by a consideration of the psychological consequences of trust for the individual, and a brief discussion of what I am taking trust to be. <<32>> I The background to the observations and proposals which follow is the clear and simple fact that, without trust, the everyday social life which we take for granted is simply not possible. Luhmann makes this point in the opening chapter of his Trust and Power (1979), and Garfinkel (1963) illustrated the importance of trusting other persons claims as to the nature of social reality in his (by now infamous) rule-breaching studies. In these, Garfinkels confederates behaved as if the nature of a social situation was other than that which it might be taken to be by the unwitting subjects with whom they were interacting. The subjects (or, perhaps more appropriately, victims)

With the emergence of technologies designed to support social activities online, it is beneficial to explore their potential in novel application areas. These studies, in the research tradition of Bowers et al. (1996), can be used to evaluate and develop technologies while providing the opportunity to study the social practices that develop around their use. We examine the use of online seminar technologies in a new situation of rising interest – networking events- in six exploratory studies. These events encouraged 'networking ' interaction between guests. Evaluation was conducted through ethnomethodological analysis of recordings of text and audio interaction. We present findings of dual technical and social interest. Socially, we reveal practises employed by participants in achieving taking-part-in-these-events. Participants employ everyday interactional competencies and develop them for the situational specifics. Technically, we evaluate the applications for the purposes of networking events. Through locating the difficulties participants exhibit and highlighting their interactional practises we provide a design resource. The central focus is on the practical accomplishment of participation. Much of the activity concerns its achievement and maintenance. Participation is a mutually accomplished social interactional activity founded on presence, which involves constructing shared understandings for all practical purposes. Where

This report focuses upon the increasingly prominent obstacles to successful work-sharing or collaboration between autonomous vehicles and people. It represents the first step in a wider body of work, aimed at enhancing the utility of autonomous vehicles by improving this collaboration.

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Political use of management accounting information: "When I use a word it will mean just what I choose it to mean neither more nor

This paper is a draft publication.

We would like to thank Jan Mladek for his extensive help in the Czech Republic. We are indebted to Ira Lieberman for his time in providing an oral history of the privatization experience in Russia and of