Andrea Chandra von Kaenel

Online applications support and affect an extensive variety of today's social and business interactions. Trust has been identified as a key prerequisite for the acceptance and adoption of online services or applications. Research has come a long way in exploring antecedents and drivers of online trust. A range of authors have hypothesized that user characteristics, such as web experience and demographics, impact online trust formation. Based upon a survey among German internet users, we differentiate two user groups, Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants, and find significant differences in their trust formation. While Digital Natives look for a balance in perceived risk and benefit as well as convincing third party endorsements when choosing an online service, Digital Immigrants are more interested in large, well-established providers with a recognizable offline presence.

Online applications support and affect an extensive variety of today's social and business interactions. Trust has been identified as a key prerequisite for the acceptance and adoption of online services or applications. Research has come a long way in exploring antecedents and drivers of online trust. A range of authors have hypothesized that user characteristics, such as web experience and demographics, impact online trust formation. Based upon a survey among German internet users, we differentiate two user groups, "Digital Natives" and "Digital Immigrants", and find significant differences in their trust formation. While "Digital Natives" look for a balance in perceived risk and benefit as well as convincing third party endorsements when choosing an online service, "Digital Immigrants" are more interested in large, well-established providers with a recognizable offline presence.

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.

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.

Consumer trust has been identified as a key success factor of online business: A user's willingness to provide at least 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 Public Relations in online trust management, though. This paper will present an explorative survey among 21 online businesses active in Germany. It identifies 9 core drivers of online trust from a corporate communication-perspective, and differentiates the contribution of the PR function to these drivers. Public Relations are capable of contributing to online trust in a range of significant ways, including engaging in targeted issues management, pro-actively providing crucial information, ensuring consistent corporate design, or attending to critical questions and public concerns.