The Effect of Site Trust on Trust in the Sources of Online Consumer Review and Trust in the Sources of Consumer Endorsement in Advertisement

Consumer endorsements have along been used as an advertising strategy, and now, it is also easy to see consumer endorsements in online shopping sites. A positive Online Consumer Review (OCR) is a consumer endorsement in the web site. Although the sources of both OCR and consumer endorsement in advertisement (CEA) are typical consumers, trust in the source of OCR could be perceived differently from trust in the source of CEA. Trust in the information source ensures that consumers comfortably accept the endorsement. In e-commerce, how is a consumer’s judgment involving trust based on endorsements made by other consumers? This experimental study investigates whether trust in a web site is transferred to trust in the source of OCR and CEA. Moreover, it also tests which source credibility could be more influenced by site trust.