The role of post-adoption phase trust in B2C e-service loyalty: towards a more comprehensive picture

Despite the extensive interest in trust within information systems (IS) and e-commerce disciplines, only few studies examine trust in the postadoption phase of the customer relationship. Not only gaining new customers by increasing adoption, but also keeping the existing ones loyal, is largely considered important for e-business success. This paper scrutinizes the role of trust in customer loyalty, focusing on B2C e-services by conducting a threesectional literature review stemming from IS, e-commerce and marketing. The key findings of this study are: 1. Literature discussing the role of trust after the adoption phase is relatively scarce and fragmented 2. In the empirical testing trust is mostly viewed as a monolith 3. Quantitative research methods dominate the field 4. Since trust may play a role during the whole relationship, also dynamic ways to scrutinize trust would be appropriate. Implications of these findings are discussed and ideas for further research suggested.