Special Issue: Trust in Online Environments: Introduction

Abstract

OVER THE PAST DECADE, THERE HAVE BEEN significant advances in understanding the antecedents and consequences of online trust in electronic commerce and online marketplaces. Building on this research stream, this Special Issue of the Journal of Management Information Systems attracted state-of-the-art research that extends the limits of knowledge in understanding the nature, antecedents, and consequences of trust in online environments. A key criterion in the review process was contribution to theory, because, as we explain in more detail in our paper on the research agenda in the domain, the study of trust in online environments requires a strong theoretical basis. Expanding the frontiers of science on this topic at this stage requires more than adding a few new constructs to existing models, considering research has already established the structure of online trust (e.g., [14]) and its relationship to information technology (IT) adoption [9]. The 10 papers in this Special Issue were selected after a three-cycle “review and revise” process from among the 57 papers originally submitted. These papers successfully expanded trust theory in the context of online environments into the realms of culture and gender, justice, desocialization and trust, branding alliances, regulations on privacy, trust building over time, recommendation agents, and system characteristics. These 10 papers apply a wide array of research methods, including surveys, experimental designs, interviews, analytical modeling, and longitudinal experimental scenarios. The papers deal with many topics of importance to current and emerging online environments, including e-commerce, infomediaries, and mobile commerce. In this collection of papers, we also included “A Research Agenda for Trust in Online Environments,” which describes our views on the direction that research on trust in online environments should take.