Trust is a concept used throughout our daily lives. We give trust to friends, colleagues and strangers. We also give trust to the technical artifacts we use in our everyday lives. We must also rely on the services we use to work the way we expect them to. There is plenty of research on trust in e-commerce and online banking on website based platforms. What is missing is research on how we give trust to mobile map applications (and mobile applications in general), and how this trust, or lack of trust, affect our use of map applications in everyday life. We will also use a model of trust to see if we can get a deeper understanding of this trust.

While trust is a fundamental block for a successful e-commerce web application, there is also a need for an easy-to-use and flexible booking system in today's hairdressing market. The purpose of this study is to investigate how a web application for mediation of hairdresser appointments can be designed to convey a sense of trust to its users. The study's aim is therefore: how can a web application for mediation of hairdresser appointments be designed for the user to experience a sense of trust? By developing the web application Klippify in line with practised theoretical background, iterative user tests have been enabled. The result showed that human surrogate presence for example in the form of employees presented with pictures, a simple and easy-to-navigate design, third-party quality certifications, a transparent customer relationship, a cold and blue color theme, and a clear presentation of underlying motives were factors of importance for perceived trust. / Samtidigt som tillit är en fundamental byggsten för en lyckad e-handelswebbapplikation finns det på dagens frisörsmarknad ett behov av ett lättanvänt och smidigt bokningssystem. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur en webbapplikation för förmedling av klipptider kan designas för att förmedla en känsla av tillit till dess användare. Arbetets frågeställning är således: hur kan en webbapplikation för förmedling av klipptider kan designas för att användaren skall uppleva tillit? Genom utvecklade av webbapplikationen Klippify i linje med erfaren teoretisk bakgrund, har iterativa användartester kunnat genomföras. Resultatet visade att mänsklig surrogatnärvaro exempelvis i form av medarbetare presenterade med bilder, simpel och lättnavigerad design, kvalitetscertifieringar från tredje part, en transparent kundrelation, ett kallt och blått färgtema samt en tydlig presentation av underliggande motiv var faktorer av betydelse för den tillit en användare upplever.

Mobile commerce can be seen as the phenomenon, which is likely to take over e-commerce since purchasing online is increasing on mobile applications (Parameswari, 2015). The problem this study addresses is the uncertainty that may follow when purchasing online via mobile applications. The purpose of this study is to investigate some human and technology factors for perceived trust in mobile applications. Human factors are defined as the same thing as user factors throughout this thesis.   This will answer the research question: What are the most important user and technology factors for perceived trust in mobile applications? The study is limited to two main areas (human and technology factors) that have been broken down into three subgroups based on perceived trust. These subgroups are: informative context for decision-making, ease of use and payment methods.   To gather data, an online self-completion questionnaire was conducted and was sent out to different social groups on Facebook. The participated segmentation resulted in needing to be modified according to uneven response rates in the different age groups. The target group went from the whole Swedish population to only people in the ages span of 16-32. The collected data was processed in the analysis program SPSS to find relations among the variables.   All the chosen factors resulted in being of great importance for users to perceived trust in mobile applications and to increase the interactivity between human and machine. However, only payment methods showed a significant value in relation to perceived trust. This result will be useful to companies when developing mobile applications to keep customers and increase sales.

Le bouche à oreille électronique s’est fortement développé ces dernières années surtout avec la multiplication de plateformes en ligne comme les réseaux sociaux. Traitant du cas des caractéristiques des messages en ligne (la force et de l’argumentaire des messages), ce travail nous a permis dans une première étape exploratoire de se familiariser avec le langage des internautes pour créer nos propres scénarios, de connaitre les principales interrogations des internautes concernant la crédibilité, la confiance et l’utilité de ces messages. Cette recherche et la revue de la littérature nous ont ainsi aidé à proposer un modèle conceptuel pivotant autour des caractéristiques des messages de bouche-à-oreille en ligne et leurs influences sur le comportement du consommateur.Une deuxième étape confirmatoire nous a permis de tester et de valider le modèle proposé etde vérifier ou d’infirmer certaines des hypothèses supposées. Les résultats statistiques montrent que les types des messages influencent la crédibilité perçue, l’intention d’achat et de recommandation. Les variables modératrices liées aux caractéristiques du récepteur des messages modèrent ces relations. Des variables médiatrices (i.e. la confiance perçue et l’utilité perçue des messages) sont considérées comme fondamentales pour l’évaluation des messages de bouche à oreille électronique. / The electronic word of mouth has grown considerably the last years especially with the proliferation of online platforms like social networks. Treating the specific case of the characteristics of online messages (the valence strength and arguments), this work has helped us in a first exploratory step to learn the language of the Internet to create our own scenarios, to know the main questions of users about the credibility and the trust and usefulness of these messages. This research and literature review have enabled us to propose a conceptual model to pivot about the characteristics of word-of-mouth messages online and influences on consumer behavior. Through a confirmatory analysis we tested and validated the proposed model and accepted and rejected some of our supposed hypothesis. The statistical output had shown that the types of messages influence the perceived credibility, purchase intent and recommendation. Moderator variables related to the characteristics of the message receiver moderate these relationships. Mediating variables (ie perceived trust and perceived usefulness of messages) are considered fundamental for the evaluation of electronic word of mouth messages.

The growing popularity of the internet and its activities have opened a wide range of business opportunities especially in terms of e-business. Though, reports show that the adoption rate of e-commerce in developed countries seem to be striving, a lot of developing countries still struggle with slow e-commerce adoption rate. Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is one these countries where e-commerce adoption is still in its infant stages. However, because of the recent infrastructure improvements and the growth in telecommunication services in the country, internet penetration, more specifically, mobile Internet penetration is growing at a significantly fast pace. This could mean opportunities for e-business services in DRC. The objective of this research is to investigate the factors that could influence online shopping adoption in DRC. This investigation was carried out by adapting an extended version of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). A quantitative approach was used in the collection of data and the data was edited and analyzed using the programming language, R. Also, the analytical techniques used in conducting this research include: Descriptive Statistical Methods (Cross tabulation, frequencies) and inferential Statistical Methods (Logistic Regression, ANOVA and Chi square tests). The results from this research show that contrary to the conceptualized model in the literature review where the main constructs included: Perceived Ease of Use(PEOU), Perceived Usefulness(PU) and Perceived Trust(PT), it appears that Perceived Ease of Use(PEOU) does not have any significance in a user’s intention to shop online(p>0.01). However, this research found that Perceived Usefulness and Perceived Trust have a strong statistical significance to a user’s intention to shop online. Furthermore, we found that Gender, Income and Age do not have any moderating influence on the relationship between a user’s perception and their intention to shop online in DRC. However, when the relationship between VI perception and intention to shop online is moderated by experience, we find that there is a variation between users with prior online shopping experience and those without. While these research findings make for remarkable recommendations on a user’s intention to shop online, we recommend that further research on actual usage of e-commerce be examined in DRC to get a better understanding of consumer online behaviors.

El presente trabajo tiene como objetivo demostrar el tipo de relación entre la confianza percibida y la intención de compra en plataformas E-commerce en jóvenes limeños de 18 a 25 años. Este estudio de diseño es cuantitativo de carácter concluyente, no experimental, de corte transeccional. La muestra fue seleccionada por muestreo no probabilístico con la técnica de muestreo por bola de nieve y está conformada por 250 jóvenes. El análisis estadístico es descriptivo, correlacional y de regresiones lineales simple para lo cual se utiliza la herramienta estadística SPSS. / The objective of this work is to demonstrate the type of relationship between perceived trust and purchase intention in E-commerce platforms in young people from Lima between 18 and 25 years old. This design study is quantitative, conclusive, non-experimental, transectional. The sample was selected by non-probability sampling with the snowball sampling technique and is made up of 250 young people. The statistical analysis is descriptive, correlational and simple linear regressions, for which the SPSS statistical tool is used. / Trabajo de investigación

During the last couple of years there has been a major digitalization of the financial sectorwhich FinTech have largely contributed to. FinTech does not solely contribute withpossibilities, but it also inflicts risks within the financial system when adding challengesrelated to IT-security. These risks pose new operational risks within the financial sector.Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine as well as analyse different variables thatexplain the perceived trust and risks when using these digital financial services. This isbecause customers play a vital role in keeping their services as well as maintaining financialstability within the FinTech corporations. To examine the subject in this study a deductiveapproach is applied which focuses on previous empirical research and models likeTechnology Acceptance Model (TAM), Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) as well asBehavioral finance. These models aim to explain how customers accept new digitalphenomenon. Furthermore, the study performs a quantitative research method through a webbased survey questionnaire. The study examines the independent variables usage, perceivedability to adapt and perceived risk in relation to the dependent factor perceived trust. Thestudy’s sample consists of 185 survey responses which were analyzed through descriptive andinferential statistics. The hypotheses were tested using a multiple regression analysis wherethe independent variables and control variables were analyzed against the dependent variable.The empirical findings showed that customers' perceived ability to adapt to FinTech servicesdid not have a statistically significant effect on perceived trust. Furthermore, perceived riskand usage had a statistically proven influence on perceived trust. The control variables for thisstudy were age and gender where neither had a statistical association to the dependentvariable. Lastly, the empirical findings of the study can be useful for FinTech companiessince it proves that risks need to be minimized to increase perceived trust / Det har skett en stor digitalisering av den finansiella sektorn under de senaste åren därFinTech och dess tjänster har haft en betydande roll. Dock är inte de innovativa digitalatjänsterna som FinTech bidrar till enbart möjligheter, utan det utsätter även den finansiellasektorn för risker. På grund av digitaliseringen medför dessa risker nya operationella riskerinom den finansiella sektorn. Studiens syfte är därav att undersöka och analysera de variablersom förklarar det upplevda förtroendet och riskerna som finns vid användningen av digitalafinansiella tjänster. Studiens fokus ligger på kunderna då de har en nyckelroll i bevarandet avdessa tjänster. Studien har sin grund i ett deduktivt tillvägagångssätt med fokus på tidigareempirisk forskning på området, men även olika modeller som Technology Acceptance Model(TAM), Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) samt Behavioral finance som syftar till attförklara hur kunden accepterar nya digitala fenomen. För att undersöka detta tillämpas enkvantitativ metod genom användningen av en webbaserad surveyundersökning. Urvalet bestårav 185 svar som därefter analyserades genom deskriptiv statistik och inferentiell statistik.Detta skedde i form av en multipel regressionsanalys som analyserade studiens tre hypoteserdär studiens tre oberoende variabler och kontrollvariabler analyserades emot studiensberoende variabel. Resultaten visade på att risk och användning hade ett statistiskt sambandmed det upplevda förtroendet medan den egna upplevda förmågan inte hade det. Studiensresultat kan vara användbara för FinTech-företag då resultaten visar att risker måste minskasför att kundförtroendet ska öka.

MCom (Business Information Systems) / Department of Business Information Systems / Today, information and communication technologies (ICT) have become an integral part of humans lives more especially in business, be it those in developed or developing countries. The evolution of ICT’s has also led to the introduction of e-Commerce services. Both the public and private sectors, develop these technologies with customer satisfaction in mind. Out of all the efforts by businesses and ICT experts, e-commerce systems continue to fail because of low user acceptance and user attitude, especially in developing nations. Security issues are known to be of top most concern for online shoppers. A survey was administered to 161 respondents, to find out how cyber security affects consumer’s intentions and actual use of e-commerce systems. The study encompasses both users of e-commerce systems and non-users of e-commerce systems across Vhembe district of Limpopo Province in South Africa. A quantitative research approach was used. The findings revealed that perceived security was the main concern for non-users of e-commerce intentions to use e-commerce systems because of lack of information and lack of trust on e-commerce systems. The study also revealed that users of e-commerce systems are still concerned about security, even though they intend to continue using e-commerce systems. For the success of e-commerce in rural communities, government needs to join hands with retailers and SME’s to start awareness campaigns that will clarify how e-commerce systems work and eradicate negative perception on e-commerce systems. / NRF

This research contributes to the cloud computing (CC) literature and information science research by addressing the reality of information sharing and storage behavior (ISSB) of the users' personal information via CC. Gathering information about usage also allows this research to address the paradox between the research and practice. Additionally, this research explores the concept of trust and its role in the behavioral change relative to CC. The findings help reconcile the paradox between the two realms. Essay1 develops and tests cloud computing usage model (CCUM) that assesses ISSB. This model considers the main adoption determinants and the main drawbacks of CC. The study measures the main concerns of users found in the literature, perceived security and perceived privacy. The findings prove surprising on these concerns. Using multiple regression to analyze 129 valid survey responses, the results find that CC users are less concerned about the major issues of security and privacy and will use the technology based on peer usage. Essay 2 examines why users ignore the technology issues and elect to replace the traditional mechanisms for handling their personal information. The results of an interview-based study conducted on 11 normal users and 11 IT professionals clarify their perceptions about CC and examine its readiness to handle their information from an end-user perspective. Essay 3 explores the CC literature to identify the major factors associated with the users' trust beliefs. The research conducted in this essay groups these factors into three categories. The posited and tested model examines the effect of perceived trust on ISSB. A structural equation modeling approach is used to analyze 1228 valid responses and tests the developed cloud computing trust model. The results provide multiple implications for CC researchers, managers, and service providers.

Intelligent conversational agents (ICAs) are artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled systems that can communicate with humans through text or voice using natural language. The first ICA, “Eliza,” appeared in 1966 to simulate human conversation using pattern matching. Commercial ICAs appeared on the AOL and MSN platforms in 2001 and aided in developing advanced AI and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). Since then, ICAs have progressively appeared in consumer products and services. Their success depends on the user’s experience and attitude towards these services. This research examines customer attitudes towards ICAs through a theoretical framework of integrated Expectation Confirmation Theory (ECT) and Task Technology Fit Theory (TTF). By exploring user experience via an experiment that engages end-users with ICA’s different functions and tasks, this study examines user perception of ICA’s AI capabilities, such as Conversation Ability, Friendliness, Intelligence, Responsiveness, Task Performance, and Trust. This research investigates how customer satisfaction with ICA capabilities and perceived task technology fit influence their intention to use ICAs. A field survey of 380 Canadian end-users utilizing ICAs on the websites of five large Canadian telecom service providers enabled empirical testing of the model. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)