Untangling the Antecedents and Covariates of E‐Commerce Trust: Institutional Trust vs. Knowledge‐Based Trust

Abstract

Through experimentation, we establish a causal relationship between structural assurance and both vendor trustworthiness (knowledge‐based trust) and technology trustworthiness (institution‐based trust). We expand the definitions of structural assurance and institution‐based trust to include the element of security measures employed by the marketplace technology. Situational normality demonstrates a causal relationship with technology trustworthiness, and with vendor trustworthiness, the latter only when the covariates of familiarity with the Internet and a person's initial trust are controlled.