A Behavioral Beliefs Model of Trustworthiness in Consumer-Oriented E-Commerce

For e-commerce to grow, customers must trust organizations with which they interact. In this article, we propose and test a theoretically-derived model of trustworthiness of Web merchants in general. Trustworthiness is influenced by behavioral, competence, and attitudinal beliefs. Findings indicate trustworthiness is strongly influenced by behavior-related beliefs, and less strongly by attitude-related beliefs. Trustworthiness beliefs impact intentions to purchase from Web merchants.