How to Understand the Role of Trusted Third Party in the Process of Establishing Trust for E-Commerce?

According to the results of related empirical studies, the Trusted Third Party (TTP) is an important factor that can promote consumers’ trusting intentions and influence their trusting behaviours. However, they are often confined to the specific service types, such as TTP security and privacy certifications, while ignoring the fact that the TTPs also have functions such as logistics distribution, insurance and recommendation in the actual application process. Thus, in order to better understand the role and significance of TTPs for the online trust building process, it is necessary to appropriately extend the functions of TTPs and conduct more in-depth research and exploration of its roles and effectiveness. Based on literature review and a small-scope interviews of consumers, this paper proposes a TTP-based consumer trust behaviour model with the viewpoint that consumers’ trusting intentions are influenced by their perceived types, forms of presentation and reputations of the TTP services.