Trust and risk in consumer acceptance of e-services

Abstract

Consumers' risk perception and trust are considered among the most important psychological states that influence online behavior. Despite the number of empirical studies that have explored the effects of trust and risk perceptions on consumer acceptance of e-services, the field remains fragmented and the posited research models are contradictory. To address this problem, we examined how trust and risk influence consumer acceptance of e-services through a meta-analysis of 67 studies, followed by tests of competing causal models. The findings confirm that trust and risk are important to e-services acceptance but that trust has a stronger effect size. We found that certain effect sizes were moderated by factors such as the consumer population under study, the type of e-service, and the object of trust under consideration. The data from the meta-analysis best supports the causal logic that positions trust as antecedent to risk perceptions. Risk partially mediates the effects of trust on acceptance.