Trust in social computing. The case of peer-to-peer file sharing networks

Social computing and online communities are changing the fundamental way people share information and communicate with each other. Social computing focuses on how users may have more autonomy to express their ideas and participate in social exchanges in various ways, one of which may be peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing. Given the greater risk of opportunistic behavior by malicious or criminal communities in P2P networks, it is crucial to understand the factors that affect individual’s use of P2P file sharing software. In this paper, we develop and empirically test a research model that includes trust beliefs and perceived risks as two major antecedent beliefs to the usage intention. Six trust antecedents are assessed including knowledge-based trust, cognitive trust, and both organizational and peer-network factors of institutional trust. Our preliminary results show general support for the model and offer some important implications for software vendors in P2P sharing industry and regulatory bodies.

[1]  Blair H. Sheppard,et al.  Business on a handshake , 1992 .

[2]  S. Shapiro.  The Social Control of Impersonal Trust , 1987, American Journal of Sociology.

[3]  Izak Benbasat,et al.  Development of an Instrument to Measure the Perceptions of Adopting an Information Technology Innovation , 1991, Inf. Syst. Res..

[4]  Icek Ajzen,et al.  From Intentions to Actions: A Theory of Planned Behavior , 1985 .

[5]  Shankar Ganesan.  Determinants of Long-Term Orientation in Buyer-Seller Relationships , 1994 .

[6]  Donna L. Hoffman,et al.  Information Privacy in the Marketspace: Implications for the Commercial Uses of Anonymity on the Web , 1999, Inf. Soc..

[7]  Christian Wagner,et al.  Weblogging: A study of social computing and its impact on organizations , 2008, Decis. Support Syst..

[8]  Norman L. Chervany,et al.  What Trust Means in E-Commerce Customer Relationships: An Interdisciplinary Conceptual Typology , 2001, Int. J. Electron. Commer..

[9]  Samer Faraj,et al.  The Role of Intermediaries in the Development of Trust on the WWW: The Use and Prominence of Trusted Third Parties and Privacy Statements , 2006, J. Comput. Mediat. Commun..

[10]  F. Bookstein,et al.  Two Structural Equation Models: LISREL and PLS Applied to Consumer Exit-Voice Theory: , 1982 .

[11]  D. Campbell,et al.  Convergent and discriminant validation by the multitrait-multimethod matrix. , 1959, Psychological bulletin.

[12]  N. Luhmann.  Familiarity, Confidence, Trust: Problems and Alternatives , 2000 .

[13]  JULIE POVALL,et al.  Risk Appraisal , 2006 .

[14]  J. Nunnally.  Psychometric Theory (2nd ed), New York: McGraw-Hill. , 1978 .

[15]  A. Baier.  Trust and Antitrust , 1986, Ethics.

[16]  Karl Reiner Lang,et al.  An Analytical Framework for Evaluating Peer-to-Peer Business Models , 2008, Electron. Commer. Res. Appl..

[17]  R. Lewicki,et al.  Trust in relationships: A model of development and decline. , 1995 .

[18]  Kun Chang Lee,et al.  Transfer From Offline Trust to Key Online Perceptions: An Empirical Study , 2007, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management.

[19]  Oleg V. Pavlov,et al.  A Resource-Based Assessment of the Gnutella File-Sharing Network , 2003, ICIS.

[20]  Wenji Mao,et al.  Social Computing: From Social Informatics to Social Intelligence , 2007, IEEE Intell. Syst..

[21]  P. Kollock.  The Production of Trust in Online Markets , 1999 .

[22]  Eric Walden,et al.  Consumer Behavior in the Adoption of Peer-to-Peer Technologies: An Empirical Examination of Information Cascades and Network Externalities , 2003, AMCIS.

[23]  David Gefen,et al.  The conceptualization of trust, risk and their electronic commerce: the need for clarifications , 2003, 36th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 2003. Proceedings of the.

[24]  David Gefen,et al.  Customer Loyalty in E-Commerce , 2002, J. Assoc. Inf. Syst..

[25]  R. Frank Falk,et al.  A Primer for Soft Modeling , 1992 .

[26]  Ewald A. Kaluscha,et al.  Empirical research in on-line trust: a review and critical assessment , 2003, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[27]  Charles J. Kacmar,et al.  Developing and Validating Trust Measures for e-Commerce: An Integrative Typology , 2002, Inf. Syst. Res..

[28]  Andy Oram,et al.  Peer-to-Peer: Harnessing the Power of Disruptive Technologies , 2001 .

[29]  R. Bagozzi,et al.  A Social Influence Model of Consumer Participation in Network- and Small-Group-Based Virtual Communities , 2004 .

[30]  Detlef Schoder,et al.  Peer-to-peer prospects , 2003, CACM.

[31]  I. Ajzen.  The theory of planned behavior , 1991 .

[32]  Ernesto Damiani,et al.  Fuzzy techniques for trust and reputation management in anonymous peer-to-peer systems , 2006, J. Assoc. Inf. Sci. Technol..

[33]  Wynne W. Chin.  The partial least squares approach for structural equation modeling. , 1998 .

[34]  Detmar W. Straub,et al.  Trust and TAM in Online Shopping: An Integrated Model , 2003, MIS Q..

[35]  J. Lewis,et al.  Trust as a Social Reality , 1985 .

[36]  Jintae Lee,et al.  An end-user perspective on file-sharing systems , 2003, CACM.

[37]  Xin Li,et al.  Why do we trust new technology? A study of initial trust formation with organizational information systems , 2008, J. Strateg. Inf. Syst..

[38]  Izak Benbasat,et al.  The Effects of Trust-Assuring Arguments on Consumer Trust in Internet Stores: Application of Toulmin's Model of Argumentation , 2006, Inf. Syst. Res..

[39]  N. Luhmann.  Trust and Power , 1979 .

[40]  Edgar A. Whitley,et al.  An Exploration of the Emergence, Development, and Evolution of Regulatory Characteristics of Information Systems , 2002, ICIS.

[41]  Youngme Moon.  Intimate Exchanges: Using Computers to Elicit Self-Disclosure from Consumers , 2000 .

[42]  Paul A. Pavlou,et al.  Consumer Acceptance of Electronic Commerce: Integrating Trust and Risk with the Technology Acceptance Model , 2003, Int. J. Electron. Commer..

[43]  C. Lane,et al.  The Social Constitution of Trust: Supplier Relations in Britain and Germany , 1996 .

[44]  Alex Wang,et al.  Looking Without Seeing: Understanding Unsophisticated Consumers' Success and Failure to Detect Internet Deception , 2001, ICIS.

[45]  Christopher C. Yang,et al.  Searching the peer-to-peer networks: The community and their queries , 2004, J. Assoc. Inf. Sci. Technol..

[46]  Michael K. Reiter,et al.  Anonymous Web transactions with Crowds , 1999, CACM.

[47]  Doug Schuler,et al.  Social computing , 1994, CACM.

[48]  Andrew B. Whinston,et al.  Social Computing: An Overview , 2007, Commun. Assoc. Inf. Syst..

[49]  K. Giffin.  The contribution of studies of source credibility to a theory of interpersonal trust in the communication process. , 1967, Psychological bulletin.

[50]  Varun Grover,et al.  The Role of System Trust in Business-to-Consumer Transactions , 2003, J. Manag. Inf. Syst..

[51]  N. L. Chervany,et al.  Initial Trust Formation in New Organizational Relationships , 1998 .

[52]  T. Cook,et al.  Quasi-experimentation: Design & analysis issues for field settings , 1979 .

[53]  Anol Bhattacherjee,et al.  Individual Trust in Online Firms: Scale Development and Initial Test , 2002, J. Manag. Inf. Syst..

[54]  Paul A. Pavlou,et al.  Building Effective Online Marketplaces with Institution-Based Trust , 2004, Inf. Syst. Res..

[55]  Sirkka L. Jarvenpaa,et al.  Consumer Trust in an Internet Store: A Cross-Cultural Validation , 2006, J. Comput. Mediat. Commun..

[56]  G. Zaltman,et al.  Factors affecting trust in market research relationships. , 1993 .

[57]  J. H. Davis,et al.  An Integrative Model Of Organizational Trust , 1995 .

[58]  L. Zucker.  Production of trust: Institutional sources of economic structure, 1840–1920. , 1986 .

[59]  William J. Havlena,et al.  On the Measurement of Perceived Consumer Risk , 1991 .

[60]  K. Samant.  Free Riding, Altruism, and Cooperation on Peer-to-Peer File-Sharing Networks , 2003 .

[61]  J. P. Peter,et al.  A Comparative Analysis of Three Consumer Decision Strategies , 1975 .