Based on literature, a theoretical model was developed for viable performance consisting of eight constructs whilst the trust model of Martins (2000) was used to measure four organisational trust constructs. Exploratory factor analysis was used to extract the constructs, and structural equation modelling was employed to validate the models against the data. An empirical model for viable performance resulted in a solution with seven constructs and organisational trust with five constructs. The two empirical models were unified into a model of viable performance and trust resulting in a measurement model where all 12 constructs were shown. Significant levels of internal consistency were measured. The resulting measurement model was tested for group differences, and no significant differences were found, indicating that the assessment can be used across different groups. It was concluded that the aim to construct and test an integrated and comprehensive theoretical framework of viable performance and trust was achieved and the resulting Viable Performances and Trust Indicator (VPTI) was validated as an assessment to be used across groups. Organisations can thus use the framework and VPTI assessment tool with confidence to assess performance and trust across different biographical groups. Future researchers can build on this exploratory study to refine the scales and apply the measurement model within the wider context of South Africa or as a globally accepted model. / IndustriaI and Organisational Psychology / D. Litt. et Phil. (IndustriaI and Organisational Psychology)

Public trust in the social system and media is falling. Media transformation, new media and social networks point to developments in postmodern societies which have accelerated trust erosion. Fragmentarization and social inequality fundamentally influence the order of today's world, even through the media. I focus in this work on how the trust or distrust in media and media discourse is constructed, what the relationship is between media and trust, how they intertwine and interact with each other. I describe the trust concept from its past history to the present, its meaning and principles of construction in media discourse. I highlight in a case study a concrete mediation of (dis)trust and its construction in the media coverage of the Czech alternative website Parlamentí listy as well as the topic of disinformation in the mainstream media. Based on this analysis, I also describe which social products the mistrust mediation brings and what the future development looks like. I also focus on social inequality as a significant cause of trust erosion, confidence in the media and also ontological security.

Inter-group social trust is one of the main elements for peacebuilding and, as a common feature of civil wars, Forced Internal Displacement is creating further complexities and challenges for post-war inter-group social trust. However, research revealed that among the internally displaced people, some tend to have a higher level of post-war inter-group trust compared to the other IDP. Surprisingly, an analysis based on this topic revealed that only a small number of studies are focusing on the condition of Internally Displaced People’s post-war intergroup social trust in the long run. This study examines the inter-group social trust of internally displaced people to provide a theoretical explanation for the following question; under what conditions the internally displaced people tend to trust more/less the conflicting party in the post-war context? With an examination of the social psychology research, this thesis argues that under the condition of postwar the IDP who have experienced continuous pre-war inter-group contact the post-war intergroup social trust will be stronger than the IDP who do not have such inter-group contact experience. The reason behind this expectation is the expected effect of inter-group contact on eliminating the prejudices and promoting the ‘collective knowledge’ regarding the war and displacement, thus promoting inter-group trust. This research is collected data from two groups of internally displaced people of Cyprus; IDP displaced from heterogeneous areas and homogenous areas, using the method of qualitative single case analysis. The findings show strong support for the expected causal relationship.

The diploma thesis deals with the sources of trust in artificial intelligence, and how these sources are conditioned by social representations. It examines what risks the user is aware of when using artificial intelligence and how various factors affect the user's thinking. Artificial intelligence is represented in my work by intelligent virtual assistants (IVA). Based on semi-structured research interviews with their users, I have identified as the main sources of trust: neutrality, belief in the future, fulfillment of expectations and closeness. The first two sources are constant and based on social structure, while the last two sources of trust are based directly on user experience and are variable over time. It was also found that social representations have a significant impact on sources of trust. I divided all social representations into three categories - mechanicality, personification, intangibility, according to which the user's perception of artificial intelligence could be assessed and, based on that, his thinking about it. Because of this, I have proved that the trust of users is conditioned by social representations. An important part of trust is risk awareness. In my work, I have identified six main risks that users are aware of: unexpected software error, mechanical error, misuse of...

Bakgrund och problemformulering: Skiftet till digitala banktjänster innebär ett annat arbetssätt att bibehålla förtroendet hos sina kunder då servicen blir mindre personlig. Förtroende och service är en viktig del hos kunderna samtidigt som det ställs nya krav gällande bekvämlighet och automatiserade självtjänster. Mot denna bakgrund är möjliga problem som kan uppstå en bristande säkerhet samt riskerna kring integriteten.   Syftet: Studiens syfte är att undersöka om det finns ett samband mellan kundernas förtroende och bankernas digitala banktjänster. Utöver detta vill forskarna få en förståelse för bankkunders förtroende för sin digitala bank.   Metod: Undersökningen bygger på kvantitativ metod i form av en enkätundersökning som sedan används för att genomföra en korrelationsanalys och regressionsanalys.  Teoretisk referensram: Technology Acceptance Model, Social Exchange Theory, Perceived Risk och Digitala Tillitsmodellen.  Empiri: Empirin har fyra olika fokusområden: kontrollfrågor, förtroende, digitala banktjänster samt risk och säkerhet. Dessa sammanställs och testas i en korrelationsanalys och regressionsanalys för att undersöka samband och testa hypoteser.   Slutsats: Resultatet visar att det föreligger ett positivt samband mellan digitala banktjänsters användbarhet och förtroende för digitala banktjänster samt att upplevd integritetsrisk har ett negativt samband med förtroendet. Trots att det kan finnas ett samband mellan digitala banktjänsternas användarvänlighet och förtroende finns inte tillräckligt med stöd för att bevisa detta. / Background and problem formulation: The shift to digital banking services means a different way of working to maintain the trust of its customers, this as the service has become less personal. Trust and service are valued highly for the customers, while new demands are being made regarding convenience and automated self-service. Against this background, possible problems that may arise are a lack of security and the risks surrounding integrity.  Purpose: The purpose of the study is to investigate whether there is a relationship between customers' trust and the banks' digital banking services. In addition to this, the researchers want to gain an understanding of bank customers' trust in their digital bank.  Method: The survey is based on a quantitative method in the form of a questionnaire which is then used to carry out a correlation and regression analysis.  Framework: Technology Acceptance Model, Social Exchange Theory, Perceived Risk and Digital Trust Model.  Empiricism: The empiricism has four different focus areas: control questions, trust, digital banking services and lastly risk as well as security. These are compiled and tested in a correlation and regression analysis to examine relationships by testing hypotheses.  Conclusions: The findings show that there is a positive relationship between the usability of digital banking services and trust in digital banking services, and that perceived integrity risk has a negative relationship with trust. Although there may be a link between the ease of use of digital banking services and trust, there is not enough support to prove this.

This thesis explores a methodology to quantify trust in wearable medical devices (WMD) by addressing two main challenges: identifying key factors influencing trust and developing a formal framework for precise trust quantification under uncertainty. The work empirically validates trust factors and uses a Bayesian network to quantify trust. The thesis further employs a data-driven approach to estimate Bayesian parameters, facilitating query-based inference and validating the trust model with real and synthetic datasets, culminating in a customizable parameterized trust evaluation prototype for WMD. / Advances in sensor and digital communication technologies have revolutionized the capabilities of wearable medical device (WMD) to monitor patients’ health remotely, raising growing concerns about trust in these devices. There is a need to quantify trust in WMD for their continued acceptance and adoption by different users. Quantifying trust in WMD poses two significant challenges due to their subjective and stochastic nature. The first challenge is identifying the factors that influence trust in WMD, and the second is developing a formal framework for precise quantification of trust while taking into account the uncertainty and variability of trust factors. This thesis proposes a methodology to quantify trust in WMD, addressing these challenges. In this thesis, first, we devise a method to empirically validate dominant factors that influence the trustworthiness of WMD from the perspective of device users. We identified the users’ awareness of trust factors reported in the literature and additional user concerns influencing their trust. These factors are stepping stones for defining the specifications and quantification of trust in WMD. Second, we develop a probabilistic graph using Bayesian network to quantify trust in WMD. Using the Bayesian network, the stochastic nature of trust is viewed in terms of probabilities as subjective degrees of belief by a set of random variables in the domain. We define each random variable in the network by the trust factors that are identified from the literature and validated by our empirical study. We construct the trust structure as an acyclic-directed graph to represent the relationship between the variables compactly and transparently. We set the inter-node relationships, using the goal refinement technique, by refining a high-level goal of trustworthiness to lower-level goals that can be objectively implemented as measurable factors. Third, to learn and estimate the parameters of the Bayesian network, we need access to the probabilities of all nodes, as assuming a uniform Gaussian distribution or using values based on expert opinions may not fully represent the complexities of the factors influencing trust. We propose a data-driven approach to generate priors and estimate Bayesian parameters, in which we use data collected from WMD for all the measurable factors (nodes) to generate priors. We use non-functional requirement engineering techniques to quantify the impacts between the node relationships in the Bayesian network. We design propagation rules to aggregate the quantified relationships within the nodes of the network. This approach facilitates the computation of conditional probability distributions and enables query-based inference on any node, including the high-level trust node, based on the given evidence. The results of this thesis are evaluated through several experimental validations. The factors influencing trust in WMD are empirically validated by an extensive survey of 187 potential users. The learnability, and generalizability of the proposed trust network are validated with a real dataset collected from three users of WMD in two conditions, performing predefined activities and performing regular daily activities. To extend the variability of conditions, we generated an extensive and representative synthetic dataset and validated the trust network accordingly. Finally, to test the practicality of our approach, we implemented a user-configurable, parameterized prototype that allows users of WMD to construct a customizable trust network and effectively compare the trustworthiness of different devices. The prototype enables the healthcare industry to adapt and adopt this method to evaluate the trustworthiness of WMD for their own specific use cases. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / In this thesis, two challenges in quantifying trust in wearable medical devices, are addressed. The first challenge is the identification of factors influencing trust which are inherently subjective and vary widely among users. To address this challenge, we conducted an extensive survey to identify and validate the trust factors. These factors are stepping stones for defining the specifications and quantifying trust in wearable medical devices. The second challenge is to develop a precise method for quantification of trust while taking into account the uncertainty and variability of trust factors. We constructed a Bayesian network, that captures the complexities of trust as probabilities of the trust factors (identified from the survey) and developed a data-driven approach to estimate the parameters of the Bayesian network to compute the measure of trust. The findings of this thesis are empirically and experimentally validated across multiple use cases, incorporating real and synthetic data, various testing conditions, and diverse Bayesian network configurations. Additionally, we developed a customizable, parameterized prototype that empowers users and healthcare providers to effectively assess and compare the trustworthiness of different wearable medical devices.

Recent organisational changes have refocused attention on the productivity and performance of sales representatives and consequently brought about a re-evaluation of the QWL these employees experience, as well as their trust in the organisation to support them. Responses to an internet-based survey methodology were analysed using quantitative techniques and structural equation modelling. Results confirm a positive relationship between Managerial Practices and Organisational Trust, and a lower relationship between the dimensions of Personality and Organisational Trust. A positive relationship was noted between QWL and Managerial Practices, and a lower relationship between QWL and the Personality constructs. This study accentuates the importance of management to be aware of the trust employees have in the organisation as well as their experience of QWL, as it seems as though the Personality traits and Managerial Practices of managers influences both the trust relationship and QWL experienced by employees. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M.A. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

published_or_final_version / Business / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

<p>Secure Access For Everyone (SAFE), is an integrated system for managing trust</p><p>using a logic-based declarative language. Logical trust systems authorize each</p><p>request by constructing a proof from a context---a set of authenticated logic</p><p>statements representing credentials and policies issued by various principals</p><p>in a networked system. A key barrier to practical use of logical trust systems</p><p>is the problem of managing proof contexts: identifying, validating, and</p><p>assembling the credentials and policies that are relevant to each trust</p><p>decision. </p><p>SAFE addresses this challenge by (i) proposing a distributed authenticated data</p><p>repository for storing the credentials and policies; (ii) introducing a</p><p>programmable credential discovery and assembly layer that generates the</p><p>appropriate tailored context for a given request. The authenticated data</p><p>repository is built upon a scalable key-value store with its contents named by</p><p>secure identifiers and certified by the issuing principal. The SAFE language</p><p>provides scripting primitives to generate and organize logic sets representing</p><p>credentials and policies, materialize the logic sets as certificates, and link</p><p>them to reflect delegation patterns in the application. The authorizer fetches</p><p>the logic sets on demand, then validates and caches them locally for further</p><p>use. Upon each request, the authorizer constructs the tailored proof context</p><p>and provides it to the SAFE inference for certified validation.</p><p>Delegation-driven credential linking with certified data distribution provides</p><p>flexible and dynamic policy control enabling security and trust infrastructure</p><p>to be agile, while addressing the perennial problems related to today's</p><p>certificate infrastructure: automated credential discovery, scalable</p><p>revocation, and issuing credentials without relying on centralized authority.</p><p>We envision SAFE as a new foundation for building secure network systems. We</p><p>used SAFE to build secure services based on case studies drawn from practice:</p><p>(i) a secure name service resolver similar to DNS that resolves a name across</p><p>multi-domain federated systems; (ii) a secure proxy shim to delegate access</p><p>control decisions in a key-value store; (iii) an authorization module for a</p><p>networked infrastructure-as-a-service system with a federated trust structure</p><p>(NSF GENI initiative); and (iv) a secure cooperative data analytics service</p><p>that adheres to individual secrecy constraints while disclosing the data. We</p><p>present empirical evaluation based on these case studies and demonstrate that</p><p>SAFE supports a wide range of applications with low overhead.</p> / Dissertation

Trust Fund in Business Relations Author: Milan Sýkora Supervisor: prof. JUDr. Stanislava Černá, CSc. This diploma thesis deals with transplantation of trusts into the Czech Civil Code in the form of "svěřenský fond" (fiduciary fund) and with possibilities of this instrument in the world of commerce. The essential question is whether svěřenský fond is capable of replacing Anglo-Saxon trust in the following standard financial transactions: (i) syndicated loans, (ii) issues of bonds, (iii) subordination, (iv) securitization and (v) collective investment. In total, this thesis comprises of seven chapters, including the Introduction and the Conclusion. After an introduction, uncommonly, a prologue follows. This Prologue outlines a new, unusual instrument of the Czech law - svěřenský fond. It refers to the particular legislation and outlines questions that arise with this recently transplanted device. The third chapter defines trust using comparative law and deals with its historical development both on the British Islands and in the civil and mixed jurisdictions. The second subchapter argues that the so-called obstacles of trust reception into civil law are not based on solid arguments. Further, I describe experience of trust reception in selected civil law and mixed jurisdictions. In the fourth...