Longitudinal research on consumers´ trust in B2C E-business

Little empirical studies have addressed trust, satisfaction and loyalty in e-business from a longitudinal perspective, as well as the examination of trusting beliefs evolution over time. This research presents a dynamic model for understanding the process by which consumers´ trust evolves over time in B2C E-business. This model bridges trusting intention, satisfaction and e-loyalty and examines the process of trust development from one period to the next. The empirical research results showed that, online consumers´ trusting intention at pre-purchase stage significantly positively affected their satisfaction at post-purchase stage, which indirectly positively affected their e-loyalty at last, almost completely mediated by their relationship commitment to the B2C e-vendor. During the process by which consumers´ trust evolves over time, the three dimensions of trusting belief (integrity, ability and benevolence) didn´t have the parallel effect on online consumers´ satisfaction and e-loyalty. Although integrity and ability belief remarkably positively influenced satisfaction and e-loyalty, the effect of benevolence belief showed insignificant.