The Influence Of Trust In Ecommerce

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Social and Economic Foundations of Information Systems

Trust is considered to be one of the main barriers of entry for any e-Commerce, no matter if one is trying to allocate information or start online business transactions. This is because it is up to the users (buyers) to decide whether they are going �buy� the information or goods and services. For this reason e-commerce transactions depend so heavily on trust. However, building trust is not an easy task and it is no surprise that the lack of trust has been recognised as one of the most difficult barriers in building online relationships.

Gaining trust online is not necessarily about trusting a person. It is more about the design quality of how information or goods and services are presented and sometimes the usability is about aesthetics. The layout of a web site also affects the feeling of online trust (Karvoven, 2000). Singh and Dalaj (1999) found that the home page creates an initial impression not only for the company�s web site but also the company itself. Ironically, just like in real life, in the digital world first impressions are critical in establishing relationships.

In the world of e-commerce, in particular the financial sector where establishing relationships and trust is crucial , organisations such as E*Trade, Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette and Ameritrade permit their customers to buy and sell stocks without paying substantial fees to brokers. Even though traditional brokerage companies such as Goldman Sachs, PaineWebber and Merrill Lynch were against online brokerages in the beginning, they now offer web-based services to their customers as well. However, even today these firms only offer partial services. People already trust Goldman Sachs, PaineWebber and Merrill Lynch, yet in this example it shows that trust can not only be an issue from the buyer�s side but also from the seller�s side. E-Commerce has completely shaken the traditional business model. Furthermore, e-commerce is moving businesses away from the traditional �brick and mortar� operations to Internet based operations which is generating a significant amount of new economic activity.

However, as mentioned before there are barriers to e-commerce which can be analysed in several different levels as shown in Exhibit 1:

Exhibit 1 shows how the barriers of e-commerce can be divided into four main categories. There is no single barrier in the world of e-commerce. This paper aims to focus on the social barriers of e-commerce, in particular the trust and cultural aspect. The purpose of this paper is to look into two things. Firstly, how trust and culture affect e-commerce in general and secondly how does e-commerce get affected specifically in the Asian countries because of trust and culture.

Various studies (Georgiou et al., 2002; Dekleva, 2000) have shown that the number of buyers that shop on the Internet has gone up. However, as Riegelsberger (2003) has shown, that the rate at which e-commerce has gone up is not very high because of the lack of trust in today�s e-commerce web sites (Riegelsberger, 2003). The main issue in any e-commerce is that there is no face to face transaction. During an e-commerce transaction, personal information about the consumer moves from one server to another in order to complete the transaction and the buyer has no idea what is happening to that information. Because of this it can be argued that the buyers feel insecure when they shop online, especially about the personal information that needs to be provided for a transaction to take place (Hussin et al., 2007). When buyers are worried about the privacy of their personal information, they would be reluctant to provide information such as their credit card numbers to e-commerce web sites (Blanger et al, 2002). Therefore, it is very important to establish the buyers� trust by providing guarantees that the buyer�s personal information will be protected. Whether the buyers would actually trust such a guarantee is a different issue altogether.

2. The Idea of Trust in the World of e-Commerce________________________________________

Over the years the use of the World Wide Web increased and the Internet became an important platform for trading, distributing and selling products not only to and from organisations but also from consumers. Today e-commerce operates on an entirely new level. One of the main challenges in the digital industry that is related to the development of B2C e-commerce is trust which is fundamental for any business relationship. Keen (1997) has argued that the most significant long-term barrier for realising the potential of Internet marketing to buyers is the lack of buyer trust, both in the merchant�s honesty and in the merchant�s competence to fill Internet orders (Keen, 1997). Because trust has such an influence on the buyer�s activity, it is no surprise that it is absolutely essential for e-commerce. However, the digital economy has expanded exponentially in the last decade and buyers� perception on trust has changed as well. Overall, trust can be categorized as uncertainty, vulnerability, and dependence. In the digital world one cannot see the seller face to face, physically inspect the merchandise they wish to purchase, or collect the product upon payment. Hence the stakes are very high for both the vendor and the buyer. The vendor can deliver the good and not receive a payment if there is an agreement where payment is done after delivery or the buyer can pay for the merchandise and then not receive the good from the vendor.

As figure 1 shows, there are a lot of factors which contribute towards building up the buyers� trust in the world of e-commerce. The figure shows that based on a buyer�s previous experience with the Internet in general; provided that the experience has been positive, the buyer may build an initial trust with the Internet. Thereafter, the buyer may consider buying merchandise off a web site. The appearance of the web site plays a big role in gaining the buyer�s trust. For example, too many advertisements and banners may make the buyer think that the web site is a scam. Also, the buyer may look for extended validation SSL seals and reviews from other buyers. At this point, the risk factor comes in. If the quality of the web site is not appropriate for conducting e-commerce, then the user may find it risky to conduct a transaction on the given web site because they do not trust it and that automatically contributes to not trusting the technology behind it. However, if the buyer builds up trust based on all the factors listed above; then there could be a chance for the buyer to participate in e-commerce and buy merchandise.

Figure 1: Sources that contribute to trust in e-commerce

2.1 The Role of Trust in B2C e-Commerce

In every marketing paradigm, trust is usually seen as one of the most important aspect in building customer relationship. Generally speaking studies have shown that trust is not only about building relationship but it is also about willingness to rely on an exchange partner in whom one has confidence. It is about the confidence a consumer has on their supplier�s reliability and integrity. Most importantly, in B2C commerce, trust could be seen as an expectation where both parties will behave according to the commitments they made, negotiate honestly, and not take advantage in case an opportunity arises. This may sound simple in the real world were people come to agreements face to face. However, the situation can be considered to be a lot more challenging in the digital world where the parties are not even aware of the environment they are in when they are coming to an agreement and making a commitment (Corbitt, 2003). So basically, the buyers are leaving it to the vendor�s technological competence and trusting the vendor to be an honest person and deliver the merchandise that was paid for.

Furthermore, trust is an important aspect especially if we look into one�s investment behaviour. For this reason the e-commerce web sites which can appeal consumers� trust and lower consumers� perception for risks through marketing activities and technology improvements are the ones which succeed. Unlike in the traditional face to face conventional markets, along with trust technology plays and equal role to make an e-commerce successful. This is because people usually trust the sales person who is selling them the merchandise. However in the case of e-commerce there is no such sales person, so the buyers have to trust the technology when they wish to buy something. Sales people are trained to gain the trust if their buyers. For e-commerce the technology needs to have appearance, functionality and service quality coupled with marketing strategies to complete the same task that a real sales person does in order the gain the buyer�s trust. Moreover, it could be argued that perceived market orientation in the case of B2C e-commerce could be positively related to not only the degree of buyer�s trust perception but also the level of buyer�s e-commerce participation (Corbitt, 2003).

2.2 Trust in Terms of Social Dimension

It could be argued that the way trust is treated is influenced by the social environment one is in. In the case of e-commerce trust is not only about believing that that vendor will keep their word and make the delivery upon payment. People are also worried about the information they need to give out about themselves to someone or something that they have never seen in their life before. Hence the issue of privacy comes into play as well. Therefore, there are a number of social and cultural issues that need to be addressed when considering e-commerce. Security and privacy issues are two other barriers for the growth of e-commerce. Buyers do not feel comfortable to disclose confidential data such as their home address, Social Security number (used in the U.S.), and credit card number over the Internet to a �stranger�. The reason for this is because even today the buyers continue to question whether e-commerce web sites offer adequate safeguards that would protect their privacy from being breached or their money from being stolen. Web sites use cookies to collect information about buyers� activities to offer a better and more customized service to their visitors. Unfortunately, most web sites still collect such information without the person�s knowledge or consent. Furthermore, e-commerce organisations do not necessarily provide any disclosure or explanation about how the information collected is going to be used (Bingi, 2000). Also, many businesses do not have the proper equipment to protect themselves against cyber-attacks and hackers which makes the buyers unsure about wanting to buy their merchandise online.

Outside the world of e-commerce in a traditional business environment, trust is created transitively through a friend�s recommendation for example, from personal experiences that have been done previously, or through transparent legislative infrastructures which could be done by depositing money in a bank that has strict banking regulations. E-commerce it could be considered to be an entirely new method of trading where things can get a bit more challenging because none of the factors mentioned above may exist. This leads us back to the lack of trust and as a result in buyer�s resistance toward buying products or services through web sites (Bingi, 2000). For this reason the e-commerce organisations have created brand identity that creates a sense of trust in the company.

In face to face transactions people take cultural diversity into account. This is another challenge that is faced by e-commerce businesses as they need to take the cultural diversity of the buyers into account while designing their web sites. The capability to customise the interface for individuals� or groups� needs is one of the greatest assets of e-commerce. However, developing web sites in a fashion that allows it to meet local needs and preferences of many different customer groups is a major challenge for developers and also rather expensive (Bingi, 2000). Understanding the culture and building the web sites accordingly helped the vendors to build trust with their buyers.

2.3 Consumer�s Characteristics in Trusting e-Commerce

Consumer�s characteristics could be understood as backgrounds to consumer�s trust in e-commerce. As Pennanen (2009) puts it, consumer�s personality features, such as extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness to experience, have influence on consumer�s trust on e-commerce. Moreover, as it was discussed in figure 1, Pennanen (2009) confirms that consumer�s past Internet shopping behaviour, along with the environment of web usage, predisposition to technology and feeling of control influence consumer�s trust on e-commerce. Once a familiarity and experience is gathered with e-commerce, studies have shown that the trust in the e-vendor/supplier increases as well. Furthermore, familiarity with e-commerce and openness to new technological innovations along with satisfaction in using computer systems, have a positive effect on consumer�s trust on e-commerce (Pennanen, 2009). If consumers are not comfortable with using the computer or the internet, then the level of trust in e-commerce could disappear. However, in regards to this, it could be argued that the lack of trust is not necessarily towards e-commerce specifically but towards using the Internet and the Computer as a whole (Pennanen, 2009). For this reason, individual characteristics such as dispositional trust, attitude towards online shopping, personal values, age and educational level play significant roles when it comes to consumer�s trust in e-commerce.

Moreover, based on consumers� interpersonal trust on e-commerce and the consumers� perceptions of a vendor�s trustworthiness, the purchase intention of the consumers could change. For example, the consumers� perceived Internet vendor integrity and predictability can possibly lead to an increased intention to purchase merchandise. Therefore, the trust on e-commerce affects buyers� intention to use a web site. However, once the buyers� trust in an Internet vendor is formed, it could lead to long term commitment towards this vendor. Also, this trust could also lead to a positive attitude toward the Internet vendor and decreased consumers� risk perception (Pennanen, 2009).

2.4 Building Trust in e-Commerce

From the evidence found and discussed in the previous sections, it has been seen that consumers are often hesitant to transact with Internet vendors because of their uncertainty about the vendor�s behaviour or the alleged risk of having personal information stolen by hackers. For this reason trust play a crucial role in e-commerce to help consumers overcome their perceptions of risk and insecurity. Once the trust is gained from the consumers, they might be more willing to share personal information, purchase merchandise, and act on Internet vendor�s advice. All these behaviours are very important to widespread the adoption of e-commerce.

Trust has many dimensions making it far from being unitary. In this case it guarantees by confirming empirically the distinction among the three dimensions of capability, benevolence, and integrity that shows that e-commerce users do not measure Internet vendors in broad, widespread terms, but in terms of specific attributes. It is possible for buyers to quickly believe that an Internet vendor is honest and benevolent. However, the consumers may also think that the vendor is not competent enough to earn the buyers� trade or vice versa. This could be considered to be an initial stage of trust. As time goes by, these differences could become more distinct as the relationship develops since trusting beliefs differentiate with familiarity. Studies have shown that buyers developed faith in general others' capability, benevolence and integrity over a long period of time (McKnight et al., 2002). As McKnight et al.�s (2002) study also show, the developed faith in general others' capability, benevolence and integrity made them more discriminant than trusting beliefs in a specific vendor that have been developed in one brief interaction with the vendor's Web site. These three attributes (capability, benevolence and integrity) apply not only to the interpersonal domain, but also to the dispositional and institutional domains. This means that even when it comes to Internet vendors in general, people hold specific beliefs with respect to specific attributes instead of broadly trusting or not trusting (McKnight et al., 2002).

Furthermore, the disposition to trust is positively related to personal innovativeness. This means that experience done on the Web relates positively to institution-based trust in the Web. Also, the perceived site quality is highly interrelated with trusting beliefs and intentions in the vendor. McKnight et al.�s (2002) and various other studies related to site quality show that, in the context of initial relationships, people make judgments about little-known trustees on the basis of whatever they know so far. Hence the buyers make beliefs about the capability, benevolence and integrity of an unfamiliar vendor partially on the basis of their perceptions about the web site quality. Generally speaking, people in an indeterminate condition seek assurance for their beliefs through experiential evidence which in this case could be supplied by viewing a web site (McKnight et al., 2002).

3. E-Commerce in Emerging Economies________________________________________

It could be argued that e-commerce has a potential to add a higher value to businesses and consumers in developing countries than in developed countries. However, most organisations that are based in developing countries have failed to gain from the profits and benefits which are offered by modern information and communications technologies (Kshetri, 2007).

As Vatanasakdakul et al.�s (2004) study has shown it is commonly believed that e-commerce will help firms in developing countries to reduce cost and to progress their access to global market. However, as previously mentioned the developing countries are far away in succeeding in their adoption of e-commerce. In the developing countries it is not only about trust, but social and cultural perspectives impact adoption of e-commerce as well. Vatanasakdakul et al. (2004) found that even though e-commerce was implemented in many firms, it was still used in a very limited manner in the developing countries like Thailand. For this reason the organisations in the developing countries have not benefited much from e-commerce like the developed countries have. E-commerce technologies have mostly evolved from Western society and are designed in such a way that they specifically meet the Western society�s standards and expectations. However, this does not necessarily mean that the same designs can be used in developing countries as well. Hence it could be argued that one of the reasons that the developing countries have yet to gain from e-commerce is because the consumers� immediate social and cultural expectations are not necessarily being met. In addition it could also be argued that because these expectations are not being met, the consumers� trust on e-commerce is also very low. Some cultural barriers are for example the level of trust in institutions, shopping as a social place, limitation on personal contact and language/content.

3.1 Barriers for e-Commerce in Developing Asian Countries

In the previous sections of this paper, it has been discussed that a lot of factors play into building consumers� trust especially in the case of e-commerce. For the developing Asian countries, three categories that stand as barriers for e-commerce could be economic, socio-political and cognitive. In this case, economic and socio-political categories focus mainly on the environmental characteristics and the cognitive category could reflect on the organisational and individual behaviours. Like in any other situation, positive economic feedback occurs when there is an increasing return of scale. However, slow Internet distribution in the developing Asian countries has resulted in these countries not being able to benefit from the return of scale. The issue here is not about trusting e-commerce. It is about trusting the Internet to begin with. Furthermore, high electricity costs and power outages have made the Internet unreliable and which may have reduced the buyers� trust in the Internet altogether.

3.2 Online Transaction

Furthermore, in Asia, 35�40% of transactions are cash-based (Vatanasakdakul et al., 2004). Using online payment methods conflicts with local people�s life styles. Vatanasakdakul et al. (2004) mention that many people in the Asian countries find that it is more convenient to do offline payments with cash. They do not trust the technology to handle money for them. They would rather use a person to do the transaction for them using cash. Other aspects of financial systems such as credit cards are also underdeveloped (Kshetri, 2007). This leads to people not trusting transactions which are not cash based and hence also not wanting to use any form of e-commerce for security purposes.

Also, the consumer�s lack of awareness and knowledge of the benefits of e- commerce and the lack of confidence and trust in their service providers has also been a barrier for e-commerce. For example, in Asia, a low rate of credit card usage could be the reason for the ��lack of trust in than lack of access to�� in the credit card system. If they do not trust the transaction system, e-commerce would be totally useless. Furthermore, developing countries usually have a low bandwidth (Kshetri, 2007), which means that a longer time is needed to transfer data and there is always the danger of timeout. This again poses security concerns and the buyers� are reluctant with e-commerce as they do not trust the technology to hold up.

3.3 Transactional Trust

Transactional trust means that the online purchased merchandise will arrive and the payment will be made. As discussed before, the move to e-commerce challenges many of the basic assumption about trust because confidence and trust is a vital requirement for secure e-trading especially in the developing Asian countries where trust is not built the same way like in the Western world. Hence the question of trust, confidence and loyalty is even more prominent in the virtual world than it is in the real world because of the geographical separation of buyers and sellers which is often joined with a lack of real-time visual or oral interaction (Lawrence et al., 2010). These create barriers to the adaption of e-commerce in developing countries because e-commerce does not allow the consumers to build their trust in the traditional face to face manner.

Just like in real world commerce, in the case of e-commerce contracts are expected to change and promises may be broken. Contracts are usually made face to face in most Asian countries. Culturally speaking, a strong individual relationship is often the only essential element that is required for the implementation of a contract. Furthermore, buyers in developing Asian countries are also afraid of counterfeiting and distribution of below products which further aggravate the lack of transactional trust between parties who do not know each other personally and are separated by distance and technology in an e-commerce.

Therefore, the number of people conducting e-commerce becomes a deterrent. Generally speaking, in the Western world when potential partners (seller/buyer) are found, one can expect to trust the sellers or buyers to be consistent where their products have an acceptable quality, and transactions to be truthfully carried out. However, as Lawrence et al. (2010) puts it �there is no �western honour system� in most developing countries.� In the developing countries specifically in Asian countries, trust is formed and reinforced either through association of the family (family friend) or repeated personal contact and interaction over a period of time. The transactional trust, cultural characteristics and the prevailing legal system are some of the main reasons why people refrain from using e-commerce in the developing Asian countries.

Western countries use the impartial enforcement of the law and its adaptation to new technological environments to develop ways of extending trust. It is the legal system that helps the developed countries to create their trust in e-commerce. Unfortunately, that is not the case in developing Asian countries where the legal and juridical institutions are underdeveloped. Because of the lack of a solid legal and juridical system that concentrates specifically on e-commerce, the buyers in the developing world do not trust the Internet enough to provide sensitive financial information over the web. A limited number of people own credit cards, but even if they do, they do not necessarily entrust sensitive personal information like credit card numbers to businesses operating on the web (Lawrence et al., 2010). Also, online transactions are heavily monitored by government agencies in some Asian countries. Buyers do not trust and feel comfortable in the government looking into their transactions as they lose their privacy.

Therefore, there is a significant lack of e-commerce business laws in developing countries. This makes buyers feel less secure and it results in the lack of trust in transactions done over the Internet as they are not protected legally in any form. For example, in China, a lack of �transactional and institutional trust� related to the weak rule of laws was a major impediment to e-commerce and to some extent it still is (Kshetri, 2007).

3.4 Importance of Personal Contact

Also, from a socio-political perspective especially in the Asian countries, personal-relationships are imperative in businesses and anonymous online relationships threaten established interpersonal networks. As Vatanasakdakul et al.�s (2004) study show, many companies in the Asian countries do not believe that B2B ecommerce will help their businesses to gain more business opportunities. In some Asian countries, especially in Thailand, India and China, vendors are required to socialise with customers to gain business contacts and trust. It is a cultural factor to visit customers in person on the important occasions such as New Year and sometimes birthday. Also, gift exchange is an etiquette custom in Asia to maintain a good relationship and trust. In the Western culture however, gifts are usually exchanged between relative and family members. Hence, it is a common practice to visit vendors and customers in person and organise activities such as golfing, business lunch or dinner to success in businesses and establish a trustworthy relationship. Therefore, consumers trust and prefer personal face to face communications over e-mails. They prefer established relationships instead of the Internet�s inter-personal efficiency. Personal relationships along with high-class personal services, warm relationship and face to face contact are the fundamental to building trust and it is very important in doing business in certain Asian countries. Therefore, because of the cultural and social norms which are used in conducting business and building trust, the e-commerce models are inadequate in these parts of the world as face to face contact is minimised and self- service is promoted (Vatanasakdakul et al., 2004).

In most developing Asian countries, the Internet is still considered a luxury good. Hence merchandise that is purchased online is treated as luxury items and the countries impose import duty, surtax, value added tax, sales tax, etc. As Kshetri (2007) puts it, �weak formal institutions also lower consumer trust in e-commerce and willingness to buy online�.

Furthermore, in Asian countries, shopping is seen as a social place where friendly conversations between the vendor and the customer take place before a purchase is made. This could be seen as a way of making both parties comfortable before a transaction takes place. Hence, the success of doing business depends heavily on the quality and sometimes the quantity of personal relationships, meaning how comfortable are the parties and what is the level of trust that exist between the buyer and seller before a transaction takes place. This type of relationship and trust building is not possible in e-commerce and as a result the buyers are reluctant in trusting anything where the trust and comfort was not formed face to face.

Furthermore, in the Asian countries a strong individual relationship, long term friendship and association between the parties offer a sense of community and enhance social and cultural connection through which trust is formed. In the Western world even small businesses provide e-commerce if they do not have the capital to run a traditional store where face to face contact and interaction is possible. On the contrary, in Asia most of the business is conducted through small enterprises and they are local. Because these businesses are local, the consumers have a sense of trust in them as they believe that the business is in a location where they share the similar cultural and social background. They are more likely to purchase from these local businesses instead of getting merchandise through e-commerce. Hence, a typical company in an Asian country is a socio economic entity and not just a pure economic one, unlike e-commerce web sites where it is purely economic.

3.5 Language and Knowledge Barrier

Most e-commerce web site are designed in the Western countries where English is the primary language. However, that is not necessarily the case in the Asian countries. Because English is the predominant language for development of IT and e-commerce and it also the main language used on the web. Hence it becomes a problem for the buyers to navigate around the web sites. If they are not comfortable with the language, it can be argued that they would not trust themselves to purchase merchandise off the web site either. This brings us back to the issue where the buyer might have trust issues but not necessarily with e-commerce. Instead the lack of trust would be directed towards the lack of knowledge (language barrier) and discourage the buyer from making a purchase.

Also, one needs to take into consideration that a large portion of people in the developing Asian countries are illiterates and uneducated who probably have limited access to access information on the web. This is because of two reasons. Firstly, because of the poverty level technology may not be available to them and secondly, even if technology is available the information is in a language they do not understand (mostly English) or the information is presented in such a way that some degree of education is assumed. Hence, for the less educated and illiterate the Internet is completely useless as they probably cannot read nor understand the language that is used to distribute information on the web. Therefore, large portion of people in the developing Asian countries are unaware of how their quality of their lives and their incomes could be improved by adept use of computer technologies such as the Internet and e-commerce. Conclusively, these people in the Asian countries have no trust or confidence what so ever on the Internet and even less on e-commerce.

On the other hand, if we move away from the uneducated and poor and focus on the portion of the population who can in fact afford technology, the lack of trust is still present. It could be argued that the reason for this is because of the absence of appropriate IT education which in the long term could result in low level of appreciation of potential value of computers and the Internet as a means to participate in e-commerce. Furthermore, some developing Asian countries do not offer computer education in their school curriculum. Trusting oneself with the Internet and the use of computers can be built through early computer education so that people could become comfortable using these technologies. Lawrence et al. (2010) argued that computer literate populations have greater potential to appreciate and participate in e-commerce because they trust the technology. Hence people would have to be broadly trained and educated in using technologies to become comfortable and gain trust before they can benefit from the advantages offered to them by the Internet and e-commerce.

4. Conclusion

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The Internet in general is not yet a universally accessible resource in most developing Asian countries. In fact it is still considered a luxury good. In addition, most developing Asian countries do not have the appropriate policies and infrastructure that would allow widespread usage of the Internet. Hence, it does not come as a surprise that the people in these countries do not trust the technology and are not keen on purchasing merchandise online. However, even if the necessary conditions for supporting Internet usage are not in place in these developing Asian countries, it still does not change the fact that the Internet has enormous potential as a tool for development and growth in these countries. If e-commerce can be adopted and trusted by the people, it would allow further growth in business sectors in these countries.

As this paper has shown, the adoption of e-commerce in the developing Asian countries is hindered by a range of obstacles such as unavailability or unreliability of infrastructure, the lack of government policy frameworks which would give people some means of protection, the lack of banking facilities and services such as credit cards, and of course ignorance on the part of possible buyers about the extremely beneficial potential of e-commerce. All these combined together result in people having very low expectations and trust on e-commerce in general. Coupled with these hindrances and lack of trust one also needs to take level of education, the availability of IT skills, the level of penetration of personal computers and telephone within the society into account.

This paper has also shown that the adoption of e-commerce depends not only on the economic environment but also on the cultural and social environment. Emerging or non-western economies have different business philosophies and cultures, which influence the relationship between companies and the marketplace and most importantly in building trust which is crucial for conducting any type of business. Based on the findings in this paper, is has become obvious that setting up a successful e-commerce marketplace in emerging or non-western economies may require the creation of basic services that are taken for granted in developed economies, as well as requiring a careful consideration of the underlying business philosophy and culture so trust can be formed.

In most Asian countries, people consider shopping as a recreational and frivolous activity (Lawrence et al., 2010). The idea and concept of buying goods that the buyer cannot see and touch and from sellers who are probably thousands of kilometres away may take some getting used to for the Asian population who are used to face to face transactions, familiarity with the other party with strong individual relationship and long term association between the buyer and seller etc. All these have contributed to building trust between two parties. Furthermore, bargaining is very common in the Asian countries even when people go grocery shopping. Through these bargains they get the satisfaction from winning business negotiations. Even though consumers can bid on web sites like eBay which is a type of bargain, they still cannot do the same thing on a regular e-commerce web site. Culturally speaking, Asian people would probably trust merchandise in an actual shop where they can physically see what they are buying and make sure it is what they want.

Because of the depersonalization related with e-commerce and business systems which are designed to sell products online, the long standing cultural traits are beginning to disappear. Asian countries have very old histories and people follow traditions that have been passed down for generations. Hence, the buyers in that part of the world still have a very long way to go before they can trust the Internet and e-commerce. The interpersonal relationships with people located thousands of kilometres away when purchasing merchandise online is an alien culture to most people in the Asian countries. The trust build through face to face contact is irreplaceable. As Lawrence et al. (pp. 29, 2010) mentions, �you can't replace going to see people; you can't beat having face-to-face interaction for selling or buying products�. The restraint on personal contact is a barrier for e-commerce adoption as it reflects how people do not trust vendors who they have never seen before and probably never will. Because of the lack of trust in e-commerce people in developing countries prefer more direct and individual contact with their merchants.

Furthermore, when looking into the developing Asian countries, the lack of trust does not exist solely between the vendor and the buyer. There is still a big lack of trust in technology as a whole as it is perceived to destroy their culture and way of life. It does not make the Asian population old fashioned who are scared of changes. Instead it could be argued that the decrease in human interaction with customers in the case of e-commerce could lead to less understanding of the customers� needs, because they would not necessarily be able to express their comments, criticisms or request for new products while interacting with machines (Lawrence et al., 2010). The main issue is the lack of face to face interaction between the buyers and sellers. For this reason, most entrepreneurs in developing Asian countries still rely significantly on personal contact instead of using the Internet to build confidence and trust with their customers, particularly when the relationship is in the initial establishment phase.

Regardless of the barriers in most developing Asian countries, it can still be concluded that e-commerce is indeed significant to developing countries, even after taking current limitations with the existing infrastructure and other issues related to the economical and socio-cultural conditions into account. These developing Asian countries need trade and growth to develop further. Building trust and utilising e-commerce can be a tremendously beneficial tool in developing countries. However, to gain people�s trust in e-commerce and actually have them use it certain problems needs to be resolved by taking not only the economic policies into account but also the population�s culture and preference. Also governments of developing countries need to demonstrate that they have the political will to remove the barriers that currently stand in the way of widespread adoption of e-commerce.

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Vatanasakdakul, Savanid, William Tibben, and Joan Cooper. "What Prevent B2B ECommerce Adoption In Developing Countries?: A Socio-Cultural Perspective." 17th Bled ECommerce Conference. EGlobal, 21 June 2004. Web. 25 Jan. 2013. <https://domino.fov.unimb.si/proceedings.nsf/0/1a2a660a13eca91bc1256ee00038be7f/$FILE/51Vatana.pdf>.

6. Eidesstattliche Erkl�rung

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Der/Die Verfasser/in erkl�rt an Eides statt, dass er/sie die vorliegende Arbeit selbst�ndig, ohne fremde Hilfe und ohne Benutzung anderer als die angegebenen Hilfsmittel angefertigt hat. Die aus fremden Quellen (einschliesslich elektronischer Quellen) direkt oder indirekt �bernommenen Gedanken sind ausnahmslos als solche kenntlich gemacht. Die Arbeit ist in gleicher oder �hnlicher Form oder auszugsweise im Rahmen einer anderen Pr�fung noch nicht vorgelegt worden.

Neuenhof, 31. Januar 2013

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Ort, Datum Unterschrift des/der Verfassers/in