A Logical Model of Trust in Electronic Commerce
Walter Thoen Yao-Hua Tan · Electronic Markets · 2000
Most people agree that electronic commerce can only become a success if the general public trusts the virtual environment. In this paper we describe how an agent's trust in transactions is a combination of an agent's trust in the other party and the trust in the control mechanisms for the successful performance of the transaction. This distinction is in particular relevant for international business-to-business electronic commerce, where trading partners often do not know each other before the trading takes place. We argue also that the agent's understanding of a control mechanism is essential for the agent's trust in that control mechanism. We give a formal analysis of the understanding that is required for control mechanisms to work, and for determining the subjective level of trust in control mechanisms in e-commerce.