This dissertation examines reputation as a regulating force in online and offline relationships and transactions, arguing that reputation requires protection through the promulgation of new laws. Using John Locke’s “under-labourer” approach as its central method, this dissertation ultimately sets out a series of conclusions, which form a preliminary framework upon which appropriate reputation regulation might be built. Part I of this dissertation studies offers an interdisciplinary study of reputation. Chapter 1 examines the ways that reputation is created and maintained, the purposes for which it is used, and its role in risk management and trust. These understandings are then applied to reputation in process. Chapter 2 explores formal reputation systems and the ways in which user investments and desires become written into reputation such that multiple levels of “dominant” norms may be simultaneously operant. Chapter 3 shows this normative force also operating on social network sites, shaping identity performances. Finally, having established these intersections and the regulating power of norms upon reputation, the effect of such performances is examined in chapter 4, which identifies reputation’s gatekeeper role in offline and online spaces and the risks this can create when information is accessed or employed without an understanding of the norms which have shaped that information. Thus reputation is shown as a socially negotiated and co-created process which exerts an unseen hegemonic force, with dominant political, economic and ideological interests embedded in seemingly social norms. These norms are enforced via reputation, which takes on a gatekeeper role, regulating access to a variety of spaces, information, and economic opportunities. Part II begins with an examination of the current forms of legal and quasi-legal regulation of reputation that exist, ultimately finding that none of them is fully applicable to the complexity of reputation. Having established this complexity and shown that current approaches are inadequate, chapter 6 moves on to examine and then reject the neoliberal approach currently applied to these issues, finding its focus on individual responsibility to be inadequate and inappropriate, calling instead for a mode of regulation that understands reputation within its social context.

Denna uppsats berör tillit till offentlig sektor i Sverige och dess specifika institutioner. Dessutom undersöks ifall det föreligger skillnader i tillitsnivån, beroende av människors klasstillhörighet. Tillvägagångssättet för att kunna studera detta har varit logistiska regressionsanalyser samt en linjär regressionsanalys. Detta på ett material utfört av SIFO, nämligen välfärdstatsundersökningen från år 2010. Resultaten i denna studie visar att det återfinns klasskillnader i individers sannolikhet för att hysa en hög tillit till offentlig sektor. Detta har varit främst gällande för offentlig sektors kapacitet att tillhandahålla en hygglig levnadsstandard för arbetslösa, sjuka och ålderspensionärer. I analysen visas att klasskillnaderna kan grunda sig i de olika resurser som individerna besitter, vilket i sin tur inverkar på deras förutsättningar för att hysa tillit till offentlig sektor.

Current marketing research suggests that two separate cognitive functions, rational "brand trust" and emotional "brand affect", work independently to influence brand loyalty and in turn, consumer purchasing. Yet, this idea is at off with a growing body of neuroeconomic research, which demonstrates the role of emotion in seemingly rational decisions.Here, we examine psychological, economic, and neuroscientrific research on how, along with the stand-alone effects of brand affect, emotion may influence brand trust, illustrating how these two seemingly separate functions may work in conjunction. First, we use psychological and economic theories such as the Somatic Marker Hypothesis, Affect-as-Information Theory, and Appraisal Tendency Theory to demonstrate that emotions have a large role in decision-making. Next we describe views from behavioral economics on how human decision-makers respond to uncertainty, drawing on frameworks, such as Prospect Theory and experimental findings like the Ellsberg paradox. Experimental findings suggest that people find the unknown emotionally aversive, both for uncertainty in outcomes (risk) and the range of possible outcomes (ambiguity). Risk- and ambiguity-aversion appear to arise from separate neural systems, suggesting that brand trust can increase affect by decreasing both perceived ambiguity and risk. Finally, we examine the marketing implications of the conclusion that affect and trust are interconnected. With the new perspective gained, marketers can better understand the mutually dependent relationship of brand affect and brand trust and begin to examine ways to capitalize on the clarification.

Trust relationships between users in various online communities are notoriously hard to model for computer scientists. It can be easily verified that trying to infer trust based on the social network alone is often inefficient. Therefore, the avenue we explore is applying Data Mining algorithms to unearth latent relationships and patterns from background data. In this paper, we focus on a case where the background data is user ratings for online product reviews. We consider as a testing ground a large dataset provided by Epinions.com that contains a trust network as well as user ratings for reviews on products from a wide range of categories. In order to predict trust we define and compute a critical set of features, which we show to be highly effective in providing the basis for trust predictions. Then, we show that state-of-the-art classifiers can do an impressive job in predicting trust based on our extracted features. For this, we employ a variety of measures to evaluate the classification based on these features. We demonstrate that by carefully collecting and synthesizing readily available background information, such as ratings for online reviews, one can accurately predict trust-based social links. / Graduate

Vilka normer och värderingar bidrar till en god vänskapsrelation? Ien kvalitativ undersökning intervjuades tre män och tre kvinnormellan 20-30 år. Respondenterna som rekryterades via ettbekvämlighetsurval svarade på 15 frågor om deras syn på vänskap.Resultatet visade att respondenterna hade vissa gemensamma svarsom delades upp efter följande teman; tillit, acceptans, intimitet.Vänskap visade sig ha en betydande roll för välmående eftersom detär en grundläggande del av människans liv. Studien visade även attdet ur ett genusperspektiv fanns förväntningar som skiljde sig åt i envänskapsrelation och att dessa skillnader grundade sig på normer ochvärderingar. Resultatet visade slutligen att normer och värderingargenom åren har skapats genom kulturen som har sin grund isamhället. / What kind of norms and values determine a good friendship? In aqualitative study three men and three women aged 20-30 years oldwere interviewed. The respondents who were recruited through aconvenience sampling were asked to answer questions concerningtheir view about friendship. After analyzing the interview protocol,three common themes were identified: trust acceptance and intimacy.Friendship showed to be a significant part when it came to people andtheir wellbeing. The study also showed that men and women haddifferent expectations for what that friendship will entail and thesedifferences were based on norms and values. It seems that norms andvalues are developed through the existing culture in society and inover time.

This thesis investigates logical formalizations of Castelfranchi and Falcone's (C&F) theory of trust [9, 10, 11, 12]. The C&F theory of trust defines trust as an essentially mental notion, making the theory particularly well suited for formalizations in multi-modal logics of beliefs, goals, intentions, actions, and time. Three different multi-modal logical formalisms intended for multi-agent systems are compared and evaluated along two lines of inquiry. First, I propose formal definitions of key concepts of the C&F theory of trust and prove some important properties of these definitions. The proven properties are then compared to the informal characterisation of the C&F theory. Second, the logics are used to formalize a case study involving an Internet forum, and their performances in the case study constitute grounds for a comparison. The comparison indicates that an accurate modelling of time, and the interaction of time and goals in particular, is integral for formal reasoning about trust. Finally, I propose a Horn fragment of the logic of Herzig, Lorini, Hubner, and Vercouter [25]. The Horn fragment is shown to be too restrictive to accurately express the considered case study.

This thesis explores the influences of different types of interpersonal trust on the development of the business enterprise, and builds in part on the author's MSc dissertation, which found interpersonal trust to play a key pert in the decision making process. A key feature of the research is a focus on the notion of becoming, rather than that of being; of change over static presence. The research acknowledges the basic truth of the statement 'only perception gives knowledge of things' and therefore adopts a broadly interpretative approach throughout. This is in keeping with the subjective nature of the trust concept. The thesis discusses the nature of trust from a primarily sociological standpoint and develops its models mainly from discussions of trust in the management and organization literature. The field studies, while conforming to these epistemological and ontological presuppositions, utilise three different methods: semi-structured, taped interviews; longitudinal participant observation case study; and verbal protocol analysis, in order to apply and refine the theory of trust developed and thereby come to an understanding of the role and importance of interpersonal trust in the business enterprise. The thesis finds that interpersonal situational trust is central to small business development, and may be usefully construed as an a posteriori tacit knowledge which the trusting party uses in order to fill gaps in his explicit knowledge of a situation, thereby reducing its complexity and enabling cooperation. The link between trust and co-operation is teased out, and it is suggested that trust overcomes an individual's co-operation threshold for a situation, as determined by a set of identifiable co-operation criteria, enabling co-operative behaviour on the part of the individual. The combination of co-operation threshold and trust level outcomes for each of the individuals in the situation is thus said to determine whether or not co-operation occurs between them. It is argued, therefore, that trust is a prerequisite for co-operation, and that the stronger, more resilient the situational trust, the more likely it is that cooperation will occur. The thesis finds that a useful distinction may be drawn between trust which is based on familiarity with the trusted party and trust which is based on familiarity with the situation in which the trusting interaction occurs. It finds that the development of the latter type, termed Comprehensible Situational Cue Reliance-Based Trust is perhaps of most importance with regard to the effect of trust on business development. The thesis applies a process theory derived from the work of the metaphysician Alfred North Whitehead to the theory of trust which it utilises, and finds that interpersonal situational trust may be considered as 'an actual occasion in concrescence', thereby offering the potential for a philosophical reconceptualisation of trust in terms of a process metaphysic, instead of the more static philosophical presuppositions which have historically tended to underpin its theoretical development. The thesis concludes by suggesting that trust is the medium through which the entrepreneur is able to create and extract value from the environment, emphasises the indicative (as opposed to definitive) nature of its exploration, and identifies a number of areas for further research, including matched international comparisons of businesses in order to verify the applicability of the theories and models which it develops.

Anonymity metrics have been proposed to evaluate anonymity preserving systems by estimating the amount of information displayed by these systems due to vulnerabilities. A general metric for anonymity that assess the latter systems according to the mass and quality of information learned by an attacker or a collaboration of attackers is proposed here. The proposed metric is based on subjective logic, a generalization of evidence and probability theory. As a consequence, we proved based on defined scenarios that our metric provide a better interpretation of uncertainty in the measure and it is extended to combine various sources of information using subjective logic operators. Also, we demonstrate that two factors: trust between collaborating attackers and time can influence significantly the metric result when taking them into consideration.

There is a huge need for information when you arrive as an immigrant in a new country. The purpose of the study is to find out recommendations for an information portal for newly arrived immigrants in Sweden. First, a survey was conducted to the webmasters of relevant authorities online resources regarding their ways of considering the needs of immigrant users. The answers showed that the webmasters of the official websites showed interest in considering the needs of immigrants in their websites by including pages in different languages, but most of them considered this to be difficult, expensive and problematic. To know more about a particular user group, a survey, interviews and observations have been done. A survey to newly arrived immigrants showed that their ICT skills are comparable to the average of Swedish citizens. In spite of differences within the immigrant group, like age, gender and cultural factors, they also shared common characteristics. Most of the immigrants trusted Swedish websites and Swedish authorities websites as reliable information resources more than websites in their mother-tongue. Test-persons were faced with the task of finding information about the possibility to borrow money for furniture for the first home in Sweden, our observations showed that very few of the test-persons managed to find their way to the correct authority webpage (Studiemedels-nämnden). Most test-persons tried by using many ways to search for the information, but all except two gave up. None of the test-persons managed to find the pages that were translated to their mother-tongue. The study points out the need for a systematical approach to web information for newly arrived immigrants to help them with their integration process and benefit from Swedish e-government services. A central multilingual portal website should be the heart of this program. This approach can be introduced in SFI schools given that all SFI schools are supplied with computers.

Abstract Title: Services Marketing in a Cross-Cultural Environment: Elekta in Germany Level: Master Thesis in Business Administration Author: Katrina Dietrich & Giorgos Angelakis Supervisor: Maria Fregidou-Malama Examiner: Akmal Hyder Date: 2014-January   Aim: This study aims to examine how culture, trust, network and standardization/adaption are applied within the Service Marketing of Elekta in Germany and if they overcome the characteristics of Services within a culturally different environment.   Method: The research uses qualitative data, applies a single case study, questionnaires and semi-structured interviews to collect primary data.   Result & Conclusions: The applied model shows that Elekta uses a balance between adaptation and standardization as well as applies trust and network under awareness and use of the German culture. These factors are used in combination and are influencing each other in order to create a homogeneous and tangible service.   Suggestions for future research: The case study indicates that one company is subject of the study in one country, hence generalization cannot be achieved. Therefore future research of other countries and other service industries can extend this research.   Contribution of the thesis: This research stresses the importance of culture, adaptation/ standardisation and trust and networks in cross-cultural services marketing of Elekta. It shows how heterogeneity and intangibility are influenced by the variable trust, network, adaptation/ standardization and culture.