Trust in C2C Electronic Commerce: Ten Years Later

ABSTRACT

In 2008, Jones and Leonard developed and tested a model of trust in consumer-to-consumer (C2C) electronic commerce (e-commerce). The authors expected that natural propensity to trust (NPT) and perception of website quality (PWSQ) and others’ trust of buyers/sellers (OTBS) and third party recognition (TPR) would impact a person’s trust in C2C e-commerce. They only found support for PWSQ and TPR. Much has changed with the sharing economy since the 10 years in which this research was conducted. Concepts such as collaborative consumption and social commerce are based on the principle of trust between strangers. This study replicated the Jones and Leonard study. The new study finds that C2C e-commerce has changed and the resulting factors of influence have as well. More specifically, the study finds NPT, OTBS, and TPR to influence a consumer’s trust in C2C e-commerce. The discussion section provides the significance of these findings.

KEYWORDS:

• C2C e-commerce
• trust
• natural propensity to trust
• others’ trust of buyer/seller
• third party recognition

Notes

¹ The model was run removing Perception of Website Quality to adjust for the current environment of consumers not transacting through the web. However, the results were the same. Support was found for H1, H2 and H3b. R² was still .126.