Formal aspects of a generic model of trust for electronic commerce

In this paper, we describe how an agent's trust in transactions is a combination of an agent's trust in the other party and the trust in the control mechanisms for the successful performance of the transaction. This distinction is, in particular, relevant for international business-to-business electronic commerce, where trading partners often do not know each other before the trading takes place. We argue also that the agent's understanding of a control mechanism is essential for the agent's trust in that control mechanism. We give a formal analysis of the understanding that is required for control mechanisms to work and for determining the subjective level of trust in control mechanisms in electronic commerce.

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