Recommendation Agents for Electronic Commerce(Wang and Benbasat, 2007, JMIS)

Trust in RAs

1.  Recent literature in information systems (IS) has discussed four general approaches to defining trust:
  (1) a belief or a collection of beliefs
  (2) emotional feelings
  (3) an intention and
  (4) a combination of these elements.

2.  Based on Komiak and Benbasat [46] and McKnight et al. [63], trusting beliefs concerning an RA include one’s perceptions about the RA’s competence, benevolence, and integrity

3.  According to McKnight et al. [63], competence belief is a consumer’s perception that an RA has the ability, skills, and expertise to perform effectively in specific domains; benevolence belief is a consumer’s perception that an RA cares about the consumer and acts in the consumer’s interest; and integrity belief is the perception that an RA adheres to a set of principles (e.g., honesty and keeping promises) that are generally accepted by consumers.

4.  Trust is a social construction that originates from interpersonal relationships [79]