The Web has become an open decentralized global information / knowledge repository, a platform for distributed computing and global electronic markets, where people are confronted with information of unknown sources, and need to interact with “strangers”. This makes trust and the validity of information in cyberspace arise as crucial issues. This thesis proposes knowledge provenance (KP) as a formal approach to determining the origin and validity of information / knowledge on the Web, by means of modeling and maintaining the information sources, information dependencies, and trust structures. We conceptualize and axiomatize KP ontology including static KP and dynamic KP. The proposed KP ontology, provides a formal representation of linking trust in information creators and belief in the information created; lays a foundation for further study of knowledge provenance; provides logical systems for provenance reasoning by machines. The web ontology of KP can be used to annotate web information; and KP reasoner can be used as a tool to trace the origin and to determine the validity of Web information. Since knowledge provenance is based on trust in information sources, this thesis also proposes a logical theory of trust in epistemic logic and situation calculus. In particular, we formally define the semantics of trust; from it, we identify two types of trust: trust in belief and trust in performance; reveal and prove that trust in belief is transitive; trust in performance is not, but by trust in belief, trust in performance can propagate in social networks; by using situation calculus in trust formalization, the context of trust is formally represented by reified fluents; we also propose a distributed logical model for trust reasoning using social networks, by which each agent’s private data about trust relationships can be protected. This study provides a formal theoretical analysis on the transitivity of trust, which supports trust propagation in social networks. This study of trust supports not only knowledge provenance but also the general trust modeling in cyberspace.

The overall aim of the present study was to contribute to the argument put forward by Burt, Chmiel and Hayes (2009) that trust in the context of employee selection and training can be negative for safety. The present study builds on these authors argument that new employees pose a safety risk and any effort to build trust in the safety behaviours of new team members and/or to reduce perceptions of the safety risk of new employees (e.g. through selection and training) could likely have negative consequences. The research was conducted in eight organisations from the manufacturing, construction, engineering and rail industries which are characterised by high accident rates (Statistics New Zealand, 2008). There were 118 participants which completed an anonymous occupational safety questionnaire. The participants were employees who worked in teams in high risk industries characterised by a history of turnover. The results supported past findings in that trust in selection and training was positively correlated with immediate trust in new team members. There were mixed results regarding the hypothesis that trust in selection and training is negatively correlated with perceived risk from new team members. In particular there was some support for this hypothesis at the highest job risk level. The results supported the hypothesis that there is a positive correlation between the number of selection and training processes used by organisations and immediate trust in new team members. The results also indicated that the previous safety outcomes of new team members acts as a mediator between trust in selection and training, and immediate trust in new team members. Results are discussed in terms of the concerns and implications for organisations aiming to reduce accident rates.

This research aimed to develop a deeper understanding of trust and non-profit agency website design, and specifically focussed on the ‘Donate Now’ button. Two experiments investigated the effects of varying levels of consumer certainty, manipulated by providing varying levels of donation relevant information on the web homepage donation buttons, on aid agency trust and donation compliance. Both experiments were based on Study 1, a preliminary survey of website donation button design. Experiment 1 investigated the effects of iconic manipulation of the ‘Donate Now’ button. Results suggested that varying levels of consumer certainty through iconic manipulation of the website donation button design did not effect aid agency trust and donation compliance. Experiment 2 extended the research of Burt and Dunham (2009) to investigate the effects of varying consumer certainty levels through the provision of crisis/need and response photographs on the donation buttons. Results suggested that whilst there was no effect of level of certainty on donation compliance, there was an effect on aid agency trust. Participants’ rated aid agency trust was increased to the greatest extent in the level of greatest certainty, when the donation button contained photographs of both the crisis/need and agency response. Collectively, these results suggest that aid agency trust can be enhanced through the considered manipulation of donation button design. Subsequently photographic images may be a more effective means with which to portray donation-relevant information and reduce uncertainty. Furthermore, in both experiments results showed that those individuals who reported higher aid agency trust also reported significantly higher donation intention. Thus, the current research has implications for the non-profit sector, suggesting that whilst the internet is a viable fundraising tool, the commercially driven process of online donation generation should not be isolated from the psychological concept of trust.

Background: Relationships are really important for companies in order to becompetitive today and in these relationships is it important to feel trust to the other companies. There is therefore necessary to find out how companies work to create trust between themselves and their customers.Purpose: The purpose of this report is to examine and explain how staffing companies work to build trust in their relationships with B2B clients through examination of the conceptual model, creating a theoretical contribution.Research question: How do recruiters at staffing companies work to create trust between themselves and the customer?Methodology: The study adopted a quality research method with a deductive approach where the focus wasg on describing and analyzing. The data was collected primarily through semi-­‐structured interviews.Research findings: Through the study’s interviews and their results is it possible to see that staffing companies in Växjö is working with trust. The conclusion is that staffing companies is working a lot and similar with competencies and contractual. But it differs how they work with benevolence. It seems that the staffing companies does not work a lot with benevolence and it depends on the recruiter if they want to work withbenevolence and goodwill or not and how they will do it.

Problems occur in nearly all marriages at one time or another. Even individuals in healthy marriages have suffered from some form of relationship offenses by their spouses. The literature has examined many facets of marital satisfaction and marital stability. Because of the numerous studies associating marital dissatisfaction with marital dissolution, the focus of the literature on marital problems has typically been on distressed couples. This study’s focus is on problems experienced by married participants who are not currently reporting thoughts of ending their marriages. It examined factors that contribute to maintaining satisfaction in marriages that are not considered distressed, but in which there has been some offense committed. Specifically, it examined the role of trust and forgiveness as predictors of marital satisfaction in married participants. Participants were asked to complete a series of measures that included the Trim-18 (which is a common instrument in the forgiveness literature to measure levels of forgiveness following specific relationship offenses), the Dissipation Rumination scale, the Trust Scale, and the Relationship Assessment Scale. As done in previous forgiveness research, participants were asked to recall and list offenses committed by their spouses. They then rated the amount of pain experienced by the most bothersome offense on a scale from 1-10. All measures were regressed on the Relationship Assessment Scale. Results of analyses indicated that trust, forgiveness, and amount of pain did significantly predict relationship satisfaction. Specifically, avoidance (from the forgiveness measure) and faith (from the trust measure) seemed to explain the most variance in the model. Forgiveness explained slightly more variance than trust or pain, but all significantly contributed. Trait forgiveness, as measured by the Dissipation Rumination scale did not contribute to the overall model. The most notable finding of the current study was that forgiveness served as a mediator between trust and relationship satisfaction. Listed offenses were categorized into either an unfaithfulness category or other category. Of the 153 participants, 10 participants listed spouse unfaithfulness as the offense. No differences were found between type of offense and relationship satisfaction, however participants who reported unfaithfulness did differ significantly on the amount of pain reported. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

This study assessed the relationship between leadership trust and work engagement with the ultimate goal of developing a model that would specify which dimension of leadership trust would best predict work engagement. A cross-sectional survey was conducted on a convenience sample (N = 244) representing a response rate of 48.8% from a sample of 500 university employees. The results indicated only reliance-based trust to be a significant predictor of work engagement, but it was not possible to suggest a model for prediction of work engagement from leadership trust. Study limitations were, however, identified and recommendations for institution-specific and future research were made regarding these constructs. / MBA, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Each year, the market place is becoming increasingly globalized and the role of the Internet has been crucial to this phenomenon. Marketers therefore are required to be current on the latest trends. The Internet can be used as a communication tool from the marketers and it is an ever changing medium. At first, most companies were only present through their website, whereas nowadays companies have a greater online presence through Social Media. This study aimed at finding out how Social Media presence can influence Brand Awareness and Trust in Business to Business (B2B) companies. It was based on a research model with two hypotheses. A survey was conducted among Swedish B2B companies within the Ljungby municipality. The survey resulted in 68 complete and usable responses, averaging a response rate of 65%. Using a linear regression, the results of hypotheses testing suggest that the usage of Social Media influences Trust; however it does not influence Brand Awareness. This indicates that companies that are concerned about the level of Trustworthiness within their company should have a Social Media presence, especially on Facebook since it was the most common among companies.

Over the last few years, research about trust in e-commerce has been conducted. Research has found different elements that might induce trust in such a website. However, this paper examines how trust in mobile travel applications and applications where the users can meet new people can be increased, by conducting an online survey and interviews. Different trust increasing elements are found, while using the application Travls as a case study in this research.

This study diagnoses performance in a mature manufacturing company based on an inquiry into contextual ambidexterity. Previous research has shown that creating a high performance context is founded upon the constructs of performance management and social support; however, this research has been conducted in fast evolving, relatively young companies such as software design firms. To date, no research has shown if a well established manufacturing firm can create a context with high levels of performance management and social support establishing a high performance environment and therefore be contextually ambidextrous. The presented contextual ambidexterity inquiry considers social support based upon four specific types of support, namely emotional, appraisal, informational, and instrumental support. Within social support, the concepts of trust and burnout are also vital in establishing the proper culture to achieve high performance. Further, performance management is founded upon human capital management established in a suitable corporate culture. In this study, this approach to a contextual ambidexterity inquiry is applied within the context of a U.S. based division of a global manufacturing company based on a survey, participant observation, and individual interviews. The research contributes to both the academic and practitioner environments with a greater understanding of the antecedents of high performance in an environment outside that of a young, fast evolving software firms. Further, it is shown that a high performance context may exist within organizations that are vastly different from those previously studied. In addition, this study offers an approach to a contextual ambidexterity inquiry with refined definitions and measures based on established constructs as well as new constructs. The implications of these additions to our understanding of contextual ambidexterity to both academia and practice are discussed and several avenues of future research are proposed.

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