Abstract
It is known that consumer e-commerce decisions are affected by trust and the perception of security. Two relatively new aspects of Web security have not yet been studied, but have important consequences to site designers and society: the payment-card-industry hacker-tested badge, and enhanced SSL certificates. The hacker-tested badge is an icon that can be added to a Web site. The enhanced security certificates cost hundreds of dollars with no significant added security, but feature a new interface notification. The study results show the enhanced certificate does not increase trust like the hacker-tested logo. The logo result is potentially hazardous because fraudulent sites can easily add counterfeit icons. The perception of site security is also enhanced by the usability of the site and the presence of third-party checkout. By having respondents evaluate actual Web sites, this study goes beyond existing work based on site prototypes and considers these new security elements in the context of a comprehensive structural equation model that depicts the interaction of vendor knowledge, security perception, and intention to purchase.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Post Gerald V.
Gerald V. Post is a Professor of Management Information Systems at the Eberhardt School of Business at the University of the Pacific. His research interests include evaluation models for information systems, computer security, electronic commerce applications and database models. He has published articles in journals including MIS Quarterly, Journal of Management Information Systems, Decision Sciences, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Systems and Sofhare, Commlinications of the ACM, Journal of Information Privacy and Security, Computers and Security, Marketing Letters. Dr. Post is the author of numerous MIS, database, and data mining textbooks and has extensive consulting applications in the IS field.
Walchli Suzanne B.
Suzanne Walchli is an Associate Professor of Marketing at the Eberhardt School of Business at the University of the Pacific. Her specialty areas are consumer psychology and marketing strategy, with particular interests in co-brandingtbrand equity, consumer regretlcounterfactual thought, and psychological factors that influence strategic decisions. Her teaching expertise includes marketing management and strategy, new product design and development, consumer behavior, customer relationship management, and international business with an emphasis on the European Union. Prior to entering academia, Dr. Walchli held executive positions in marketing and planning at Kentucky Fried Chicken Corporation, Frito-Lay and Citigroup.