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Master of Science / Department of Agricultural Economics / Brian C. Briggeman / Trust has been considered an integral part of maintaining any successful business relationship, and without trust, a business transaction would likely not occur. While trust has been a necessary component of these transactions, there remains to be minimal research on if customers truly value trustworthiness in a sales representative. And if customers do indeed value a trusted relationship, little is known how sales representatives can best enhance these trusted relationships. The primary objective of this research was twofold; first the economic value of trust and its components was estimated in a loan officer and farmer relationship, and second, was identifying the most effective ways that loan officers or sales representatives can increase their own trustworthiness with farmers. An online survey distributed to Kansas farmers was composed of three main components; general trust section, a best-worst simulation, and a choice experiment section. The general trust section motivated respondents to think about their perceptions of trustworthiness. In a best-worst simulation, respondents indicated which statements most and least represented the four trust components. The last section prompted respondents to report the trust score of their current loan officer and ranked that loan officer against hypothetical loan officers. Using a rank-ordered logit, the willingness to pay (WTP) estimates were calculated, giving insight to the most valued components of trust. Results from the choice experiment show that farmers greatly value self-orientation far above the other three trust components. On average, farmers are willing to pay .90% interest rate for a loan officer to be very focused on them and their operation. For a very credible and a very reliable loan officer, farmers were willing to pay .80%. Intimacy, or strong connection between the loan officer and farmer, was a distant last with farmers only willing to pay .40%. In conclusion, Kansas farmers do place economic value on trust in a business relationship. Self-orientation was the most valued trust component, and sales representatives who want to deepen a trusted relationship should focus on bettering themselves. This paper will generate ample discussion as it is a significant contribution to the literature on trust in business relationships.

Whistleblowing is a form of pro-social behaviour that occurs when a current or former employee reports organisational wrongdoing to any authority that is able to implement corrective action. While models of whistleblowing indicate that a number of social factors may influence an employee’s decision to blow the whistle, very little cognisance is given to the role of organisational trust in such situations. Since whistleblowing situations often pose problems for whistleblowers, organisational trust becomes an important facilitator for the decision to blow the whistle. This study explores whether organisational trust is an influencing social factor that may facilitate whistleblowing. It is found that organisational trust plays a significant role in decisions to blow the whistle. It shows in particular that when organisational trust exists, employees are more likely to blow the whistle, and secondly, that whistleblowing is more likely to take place internally rather than externally. Further, this study shows that in the absence of trust employees will not report organisational wrongdoing, although this finding also suggests that other social factors may impact on the decision not to blow the whistle. This dissertation argues that understanding the relationship between the two phenomena provides greater insight into how organisational trust may affect whistleblowing. / Prof. Tina Uys Dr. Neville Bews

Cloud computing is one of the latest appealing technological trends to emerge in the Information Technology (IT) industry. However, despite the surge in activity and interest, there are significant and persistent concerns about cloud computing, particularly with regard to trusting the platform in terms of confidentiality, integrity and availability of user data stored through these applications. These factors are significant in determining trust in cloud computing and thus provide the foundation for this study. The significant role that trust plays in the use of cloud computing was considered in relation to various trust models, theories and frameworks. Cloud computing is still considered to be a new technology in the business world, therefore minimal work and academic research has been done on enhancing trust in cloud computing. Academic research which focuses on the adoption of cloud computing and, in particular, the building of user trust has been minimal. The available trust models, frameworks and cloud computing adoption strategies that exist mainly focus on cost reduction and the various benefits that are associated with migrating to a cloud computing platform. Available work on cloud computing does not provide clear guidelines for establishing user trust in a cloud computing application. The issue of establishing a reliable trust context for data and security within cloud computing is, up to this point, not well defined. This study investigates the impact that a lack of user trust has on the use of cloud computing. Strategies for enhancing user trust in cloud computing are required to overcome the data security concerns. This study focused on establishing methods to enhance user trust in cloud computing applications through the theoretical contributions of the Proposed Trust Model by Mayer, Davis, and Schoorman (1995) and the Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability (CIA) Triad by Steichen (2010). A questionnaire was used as a means of gathering data on trust-related perceptions of the use of cloud computing. The findings of this questionnaire administered to users and potential users of cloud computing applications are reported in this study. The questionnaire primarily investigates key concerns which result in self-moderation of cloud computing use and factors which would improve trust in cloud computing. Additionally, results relating to user awareness of potential confidentiality, integrity and availability risks are described. An initial cloud computing adoption model was proposed based on a content analysis of existing cloud computing literature. This initial model, empirically tested through the questionnaire, was an important foundation for the establishment of the Critical Success Factors (CSFs) and therefore the framework to enhance user trust in cloud computing applications. The framework proposed by this study aims to assist new cloud computing users to determine the appropriateness of a cloud computing service, thereby enhancing their trust in cloud computing applications.

An institutional repository is seen as a valuable tool to manage digital resources within the organisational context. Repositories can have a positive or negative influence on how an institution manages its digital material in relation to accessibility and dissemination of digital material. The functionality and status quo of digital repositories can be assessed and measured based on specific guidelines to determine practicality and efficacy. The guidelines used in this regard are known as international repository assessment standards. These standards have been developed by leading organisations that specialise in knowledge creation to develop controlled, consensus-based, market-relevant international standards that can be used to support innovation and provide resolutions to global challenges. In the event where an institution wishes to assess its digital repository using international standards, the underlying purpose of the assessment exercise is for the digital repository to gain trust accreditation. This study aimed to develop a South African digital repository trust assessment model based on the criteria of international standards. This study investigated the level of trust compliance that a very small sample of South African digital repositories met – using the developed model. The investigation process is also aimed at receiving feedback (in the form of recommendations) from digital repository managers to improve the developed model to make it more useful for South African digital repositories. Furthermore, the study intended to yield further research into the complex topic of digital repository assessment based on international standards. Overall, this research study revealed that South African digital repositories are not far off in complying with the full requirements of international repository assessment standards. / Mini Dissertation (MIT)--University of Pretoria, 2016. / Carnigie / Information Science / MIT / Unrestricted

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Benefited from the booming social network, reading posts from other users over the internet is becoming one of commonest ways for people to intake information. One may also have noticed that sometimes we tend to focus on users provide well-founded analysis, rather than those merely who vent their emotions. This thesis aims at finding a simple and efficient way to recognize reliable information sources among countless internet users by examining the sentiments from their past posts. To achieve this goal, the research utilized a dataset of tweets about Apple's stock price retrieved from Twitter. Key features we studied include post-date, user name, number of followers of that user, and the sentiment of that tweet. Prior to making further use of the dataset, tweets from users who do not have sufficient posts are filtered out. To compare user sentiments and the derivative of Apple's stock price, we use Pearson correlation between them to describe how well each user performs. Then we iteratively increase the weight of reliable users and lower the weight of untrustworthy users, the correlation between overall sentiment and the derivative of stock price will finally converge. The final correlations for individual users are their performance scores. Due to the chaos of real-world data, manual segmentation via data visualization is also proposed as a denoise method to improve performance. Besides our method, other metrics can also be considered as user trust index, such as numbers of followers of each user. Experiments are conducted to prove that our method outperforms others. With simple input, this method can be applied to a wide range of topics including election, economy, and the job market.

Organizational downsizing, defined as a reduction in workforce, is a common strategy implemented by firms for the purpose of improving an organization's efficiency, work processes, or cost structure. However, previous research has shown that downsizing seldom generates positive results at a macro or micro level. It has been demonstrated that downsizing has a negative impact on financial performance, such as Return on Assets, Return on Investments, and profits in the long-term. Downsizing also has a negative impact on the remaining workers left employed, referred to as the "survivors". Survivors typically respond to downsizing by exhibiting negative attitudes and behaviors such as: decreasing employee morale, commitment, motivation, loyalty, work effort, and trust. Trust, in particular, has been shown to be critical component in survivors' responses to downsizing and is decreased through perceived violations of psychological contracts of employment and perceptions of organizational injustice. However, there is little understanding about how downsizing impacts survivors' collective trust in the long-term. The purpose of this dissertation was to examine how downsizing affects collective trust over time using a Latent Growth Curve Analysis (LCA). LCA allowed us to determine the trajectory of collective trust when downsizing occurs which we found to be nonlinear with diminishing returns. We found collective trust initially decreases in time period two but shows a slight rebound in the subsequent time. This suggests that the levels of collective trust decrease as a result of downsizing. We also found that organizational variables such as the severity of downsizing, voluntary turnover, and CEO pay moderate the relationship between downsizing and collective trust by magnifying the negative relationship between downsizing and collective trust. We also found that CEO tenure moderates the relationship between downsizing and collective trust by suppressing the negative relationship between downsizing and collective trust. Together, the theory and empirical results provide insight into the impact of downsizing on the survivors, ways to mitigate the negative consequences of downsizing, and uncover opportunities for extending management theory.

Ensuring "public trust" in AI seems to be a priority for policymakers and the private sector. It is expected that without public trust, such innovations cannot be implemented with legitimacy, and there is a risk of potential public backlash or resistance (for example cases of Cambridge Analytica, predictive policing, or Clearview AI). There is a rich body of research relating to public trust in data use that suggests that "building public trust" can too often place the burden on the public to be "more trusting" and will do little to address other concerns, including whether trust is a desirable and attainable characteristic of human-AI relation. I argue that there is good reason for the public not to trust AI, especially in the absence of regulatory structures that afford genuine accountability, but at the same time AI can be considered reliable. To that end, the main argument of this paper is 1. We are asked to trust an entity that cannot enter the trust relationship, because it doesn’t fulfil the conditions spelled out by the definitions of trust. 2. We are presented with a misdescription of the agent. Who we trust in fact are developers or policy makers. I also argue that the term "reliance" should be used instead of "trust", as by definition it is more fitting current AI applications. Additionally, the focus should be on framing trust as part of practices expected from AI solution providers, developers and regulators.

The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in collaborative tasks has gained momentum, with particular implications for critical infrastructure maintenance. This study examines the assurance goals of AI—security, explainability, and trustworthiness—within Virtual Reality (VR) environments for bridge maintenance. Adopting a within-subjects design approach, this research leverages VR environments to simulate real-world bridge maintenance scenarios and gauge user interactions with AI tools. With the industry transitioning from paper-based to digital bridge maintenance, this investigation underscores the imperative roles of security and trust in adopting AI-assisted methodologies. Recent advancements in AI assurance within critical infrastructure highlight its monumental role in ensuring safe, explainable, and trustworthy AI-driven solutions. / Master of Science / In today's rapidly advancing world, the traditional methods of inspecting and maintaining our bridges are being revolutionized by digital technology and artificial intelligence (AI). This study delves into the emerging role of AI in bridge maintenance, a field historically reliant on manual inspection. With the implementation of AI, we aim to enhance the efficiency and accuracy of assessments, ensuring that our bridges remain safe and functional. Our research employs virtual reality (VR) to create a realistic setting for examining how users interact with AI during bridge inspections. This immersive approach allows us to observe the decision-making process in a controlled environment that closely mimics real-life scenarios. By doing so, we can understand the potential benefits and challenges of incorporating AI into maintenance routines. One of the critical challenges we face is the balance of trust in AI. Too little trust could undermine the effectiveness of AI assistance, while too much could lead to overreliance and potential biases. Furthermore, the use of digital systems introduces the risk of cyber threats, which could compromise the security and reliability of the inspection data. Our research also investigates the impact of AI-generated explanations on users' decisions. In essence, we explore whether providing rationale behind AI's recommendations helps users make better judgments during inspections. The ultimate objective is to develop AI tools that are not only advanced but also understandable and reliable for those who use them, even if they do not have a deep background in technology. As we integrate AI into bridge inspections, it's vital to ensure that such systems are protected against cyber threats and that they function as reliable companions to human inspectors. This study seeks to pave the way for AI to become a trusted ally in maintaining the safety and integrity of our infrastructure.

Thesis advisor: Raquel Muñiz / Schools are complex organizations where teachers and principals must work together toward common goals. Research has established that trust is an essential element for effective relationships and that, without trust, cooperation suffers. Furthermore, a high level of trust within a school has been correlated with higher academic achievement. While studies have shown correlations between principal qualities or behaviors and the trust of teachers, less is known about how teachers and principals understand their interactions with each other or what influences their propensity to trust. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to investigate the ways in which teachers and their principals experience and build trust with each other and to determine what influences their perceptions of each other’s trustworthiness. Findings indicate that teachers and principals may value trust-forming characteristics within their relationships differently, based on their role as a teacher or school leader, and that the perception of the role of the principal may pose a unique barrier to trust formation. Implications of this case study suggest that principals and teachers may value different trust-forming traits based on the vulnerabilities in their roles. In addition, the perception of the principal role may provide a unique barrier to trust in schools and therefore might benefit from further exploration. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2022. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.