Content area
Full Text
ABSTRACT
Although e-commerce has many benefits for businesses, many organizations struggle with low consumer adoption rates. Research has shown that a user's intention to conduct a transaction online is influenced by two critical factors: the user's perception of the ease of use of the technology, and the user's perception of trust regarding the online merchant. Since the web interface is the main mode of communication between the consumer and the merchant, it is critical that the interface inspire user trust in the merchant and facilitate ease of using the technology. This study explores ways of integrating affective and cognitive trust technologies with human/computer interaction so as to achieve this purpose. In order to formulate a model for encouraging user adoption of e-commerce, this study forms a connection between the core constructs of the technology acceptance model (TAM), perceived ease of use, and perceived usefulness and the constructs of usability and trust. The proposed model was developed based on findings from two experiments conducted during the study involving two sets of sample webpages - one set incorporating web usability guidelines and trust indicators identified in the literature, and one set intentionally violating those principles. The results, incorporated in the model, indicate that encompassng the principles improves the user's emotion with regard to e-commerce adoption.
Keywords: E-commerce, trust, usability, human/computer interaction, e-commerce adoption
1. INTRODUCTION
Many organizations are eager to integrate Internet technology into their businesses. One of the more prominent applications of this technology is the use of e-commerce. Although there are many potential benefits, such as market growth, easy access, and cost reduction, online businesses face many challenges in successfully incorporating e-commerce. One of the major challenges identified by researchers is the low adoption rates of e-commerce websites by consumers.
Research by various authors under various contexts suggests that several factors play a fundamental role with regard to consumer adoption of ecommerce websites and consumer reluctance to conduct a transaction with an online merchant. These factors include perception of the ease of use (PEOU), perceived usefulness (PU), security risk (SR), social norm (SN), willingness to disclose personal information (WDPI), and trust [Lee et al., 2001; Pavlou & Chai, 2002; Gefen et al., 2003; Klopping and McKinney, 2004; Tang and Chi, 2005; Maditinos et...