Strategies of Building Initial Trust in e-Shops:A Customer Equity Perspective

• Main Authors: Yi-Shan Chen, 陳怡珊
• Other Authors: Han-Yuh Liu
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2006
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/25808558921198661062

碩士 === 國立東華大學 === 企業管理學系 === 94 === Initial trust, that is, trust in an unfamiliar e-shop, one with whom the consumer has no prior purchasing experience. Since lack of physical contact with vendors increases the risk of transaction and trade barriers, it is important to build the strategies of initial trust for inexperienced customers. In order to improve the frame of initial trust strategies, e-business model (e-BM) can be used as a blueprint for how to choose operating strategies, arrange resources, and communicate with one another. Additionally, overall effectiveness is improved through customer equity, which is defined as the total of the discounted lifetime values summed over all of the firm’s current and potential customers. This study probed into the strategies of initial trust (strategies of trust transference and customer care) and the influence of them on customer equity (value equity, brand equity, and relationship equity) through e-BM (value communication and market position). All samples in this study were approved e-shops from the well-known institutions so non-standard controls were not included. A questionnaire was mailed to 1,065 e-shops. The number of valid responses was 177 with a valid response rate of 16.6%. This survey shows that 83.0% are providing on-line payment, 96.0% have the logos of security guaranteeing firms, and 91.5% have the policy of privacy disclosure by e-shops that are approved by the third party. This study found that building initial trust enabled the improvement of customer equity once considering the fitness of the market position and value communication. In addition, the e-shops having the higher perception of profit performance greatly respected trust transference strategies, value communication and customer equity. Through this study, it is shown that the e-shop management should focus on trust transference and customer care when building the strategies of initial trust. This includes peer affiliation, brand building, customization and reputation building. It also includes the disclosure of commernce information, the transparency of the ordering process, and providing life information. Moreover, getting a feel for the customer, customer service, and branding all improved the customer equity from the e-BM perspective. Most of the trust studies for online shopping in the past were based on gradualism but neglected the base of how to build initial trust between vendors and buyers. In view of this, this study probed into the strategies of building initial trust from customer equity through the e-BM perspective in order to understand the competitive advantage and be well-informed of opportunities. From this study, it can be understood that building the strategies of initial trust enables the improvement of customer equity by increasing organizational benefits. This finding can be the guide for e-shops in building strategies of initial trust.