TY - JOUR
T1 - Effects of specialization in computers, web sites, and web agents on e-commerce trust
AU - Koh, Yoon Jeon
AU - Sundar, S. Shyam
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported in part by KT and the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation under the WCU (World Class University) program funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, South Korea (Grant no. R31-2008-000-10062-0 ).
PY - 2010/12
Y1 - 2010/12
N2 - Suppose you went shopping online for wines and visited several sites, each recommending particular reds and whites. Which kind of site are you likely to trust morecostco.com or wine.com? The specialization implied by the latter suggests more expertise in the domain of wines. Does it mean that you are more likely to purchase wines recommended by sites such as wine.com and vintagecellars.com.au than those recommended by generalist sites such as costco.com and samsclub.com? Our study attempts to answer this question by experimentally investigating how specialization in media technology (specifically, web agent, web site, and computer) influences individuals' perception and attitudes towards sources in online communication, particularly consumer trust and purchase behaviors in e-commerce. All subjects (N=124) went to a specially constructed online site with a virtual shopping cart for a wine-purchasing task, as part of a 2 (specialist vs. generalist web agent)×2 (specialist vs. generalist web site)×2 (specialist computer vs. generalist computer) between-subjects experiment. Results indicate significant main effects and interactions of the agent, site, and computer specialization on trust and purchase decision time. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
AB - Suppose you went shopping online for wines and visited several sites, each recommending particular reds and whites. Which kind of site are you likely to trust morecostco.com or wine.com? The specialization implied by the latter suggests more expertise in the domain of wines. Does it mean that you are more likely to purchase wines recommended by sites such as wine.com and vintagecellars.com.au than those recommended by generalist sites such as costco.com and samsclub.com? Our study attempts to answer this question by experimentally investigating how specialization in media technology (specifically, web agent, web site, and computer) influences individuals' perception and attitudes towards sources in online communication, particularly consumer trust and purchase behaviors in e-commerce. All subjects (N=124) went to a specially constructed online site with a virtual shopping cart for a wine-purchasing task, as part of a 2 (specialist vs. generalist web agent)×2 (specialist vs. generalist web site)×2 (specialist computer vs. generalist computer) between-subjects experiment. Results indicate significant main effects and interactions of the agent, site, and computer specialization on trust and purchase decision time. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.ijhcs.2010.08.002
DO - 10.1016/j.ijhcs.2010.08.002
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:77957884934
SN - 1071-5819
VL - 68
SP - 899
EP - 912
JO - International Journal of Human Computer Studies
JF - International Journal of Human Computer Studies
IS - 12
ER -