Core Cues in Initial Trust Formation : Exploring Differences between Online Business Models

The formation of trust has been identified as a key success factor for online business: Users' willingness to provide personal data is a prerequisite for online transactions. This holds especially true in the earliest stage of a business relationship, when users transact with an online service for the first time. Among the drivers of initial trust identified in the trust literature are features of the online business that signal its trustworthiness to potential users, i.e. trust cues. This paper will identify core cues in the formation of initial trust based on a survey of 1'294 German internet users. The relevance of these cues will subsequently be differentiated by four distinct B2C business models.