Trust and Risk in Business Networks: Towards a Due Diligence for Electronic Commerce

This paper develops a due diligence for electronic transactions with new partners in business networks with complex goods such as food products to enable the use of e-commerce potentials in first time transactions. The e-commerce due diligence is a means to reduce perceived risks and uncertainties for businesses and create trust and confidence in the electronic transaction with appropriate information. The paper presents a conceptual framework for the due diligence integrating the principles of transaction decision making and the four phases of a transaction process. The operationalization of the framework assigns trust signals and control elements to the four process phases to be communicated during the process.