Exploring online trust perception: Visually impaired and travel organizations
Abstract
Over the past few years, the World Wide Web has been rapidly developing resulting in many organizations establishing an online presence in order to maintain and foster an online relationship with its stakeholders. Along with this trend, the issue of whether online information can be trusted has been raised. The increase in cases of identity theft, fraudulent transactions and questionable authenticity of online information has forced both stakeholders and organizations to respond to the issue of trust. Among trust research, only limited interest was on online travel organizations, despite online travel being the top use of e-commerce and its complete reliance on the WWW for its reputation and business. Therefore this dissertation explored trust perception in relation to online travel. One segment of the population – visually impaired (VI) online users was focused as they are the fastest growing online group projected to reach about 70 million in 10 years in the US. Previous trust literature has focused on four dimensions of online trust perception, which are an organization's Competence, Benevolence, Predictability and Integrity. By aggregating all trust dimensions, its possible indicators, and the perceived risk, this dissertation proposes a theoretical model of Visually Impaired Online Trust (VIOT) model. The model was analyzed using partial least squares, confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation modeling. The sample was gathered by telephone surveys at Purdue University's Social Research Institute. A total of 111 responses were collected. The findings of the Visually Impaired Online Trust model suggest that Benevolence, Predictability and Integrity are the major dimensions that influence the formation of trust perception. Benevolence is the belief that online travel organizations demonstrate concern for the welfare of their VI online users; Predictability refers to users' ability to predict online travel organizations' behavior; and Integrity refers to the perception that online travel organizations will fulfill their promises and obligations. Emphasizing these dimensions would reduce the perceived level of risk at travel Web sites, which would increase trust perception. The implications, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed in the dissertation.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Wang, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Marketing|Mass media
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