The Collective Reality of Trust: an Investigation of Social Relations and Networks on Trust in Multi-Channel Retailers

Although there has been a plethora of research on online trust, there is evidence revealing that customers still do not trust online vendors to engage in transactions with them. While researchers have pointed out that the social relations and networks are key sources of trust, existing research do not place sufficient emphasis of social relations and networks on investigating trust in online vendors. This research tries to address this major limitation in trust research along with other weaknesses of trust research which are typically the exclusion of the aspects of emotional trust, lack of strong theoretical foundations as well as the unsatisfactory reflection of the conditions which trust operates in the methodologies. In this respect, this study uses sociological theories as firm theoretical perspectives for social relations and networks to manage trust and extends trust research to include multi-channel retailers. This research is expected to provide a useful framework for practitioners to manage trust using social relations and networks in a multi-channel retailer as well as introduce new dimensions of trust research for IS researchers.