Online Reputation Management : Identifying Drivers of Online Trust

User trust has been identified as a key success factor of online business: A user's willingness to provide some personal information is a prerequisite for online transactions. Studies have shown that such a willingness is based on the perceived trustworthiness of the transaction partner. Antecedents of online trust have been studied extensively from a marketing and information systems perspective. Very little is known about the role of corporate communication in online trust management, though. This paper will present an explorative survey among 21 online businesses active in Germany as well as 43 users. Overall, it identifies 9 core drivers of online trust from a corporate communication- as well as user-perspective, and differentiates the contribution of the corporate communication function to these drivers.