TAP CHi CONG THIfdNG
IMPACTS OF BENEVOLENCE, COMPETENCY AND INTEGRITY ON TRUST IN ONLINE PURCHASE:
CASE OF CONSUMERS LIVING IN HANOI, VIETNAM
• NGUYEN THI MAI ANH • PHAM THI THANH HUONG
ABSTRACT:
Online business transactions and the success of e-commerce depend greatly on customer trust. Prior researches find that personal based trust including competence, mtegrity and benevolence play a significant role in consumer trust. However, there has been limited research where consumer trust dimensions have been empirically defined and tested (Tiago Oliveira et al. 2017). In this paper, three sources of trust were identified and empirically tested their impact to customers' online trust with a total of 387 respondents. Findings suggest that all three factors positively influence online consumer trust.
Keywords: Benevolence, competence, integrity, trust, online shopping, Hanoi, Vietnam.
1. Introduction
Relationships need ti'ust for it to work well and survive, because trust is the most fundamental factor in establishing a relationship and is the basic essence of social relations (Igarashi, et al., 2008).
Due to the swift development of the Internet and the high potential of e-commerce, using the Internet as a new chaimel to purchase goods and service has been the new trend of the upcoming generation.
When comparing with the traditional mortar and brick stores, online shopping provides a similar or even better variety of product and service opfion at lower costs. Besides, facilitating transacfions online nowadays is quick and easy. In comparison with traditional shops, Internet shopping is advantageous in the way that it has almost no downtime. For that reason, customers can shop online fi'om anywhere at any time of the year, even during the holiday.
Despite all these benefits, people are still hesitant about online shopping. A majority of consumer use the internet to browse for information concerning
their fixture purchase item on Internet shopping websites; however, only a small number of them actually buy that item online (Chen & Barnes, 2007;
Johnson, 2007). Lack of trust has been cited as the primary hindrance to e-commerce in numerous past research (Chen & Barnes, 2007 and Lee &
Turban, 2001). Grabner-Krauter (2002) highlighted the significance of trust in e-commerce's growth in the long run. Hence, it is important that Internet vendors fiilly understand the contributing factors to consumers trust and their impacts on e-commerce so as to develop the industry. This study is going to examine the influence of three well identified sources of trust (competence, integrity and benevolence) to customer's trust on e-business in Hanoi.
2. Literature review and research model a. Literature review
Trust has been viewed through diverse disciplinary lenses and filters: economic social/
institutional, behavioral iK^.h^logical. managerial/
qiiAinTBHUAiiLy
Table 1. Dimensions of online trust's measurements Constructs
Competence Integrity Benevolence Online trust
Number of items 4
6
Related articles
Palvia (2009): Ho & Chen (2014) Palvia (2009): Ho & Chen (2014) 3 1 Palvia (2009): Ho 8, Chen r?0141
7 Gefen et al (2003): Palvia (2009); Ho &
Chen (2014)
organizational and technological (Dan J. Kim et al., 2008). However, the problem of having trust as a concept is that it still does not have a universally accepted definition and there is no unified way to estimate trust value, although many have attempted to conceptualize and clarify trust (Grabner Krauter
& Kaluscha, 2003). A widely used definition of trust is explained by Mayer et al, (1995). In this definition, the word "trust" is used to describe the willingness of a party (trustor) to rely on a particular action performed by another party (trustee). This action is of direct concern to the trustor, irrespective of whether they can supervise and control the performer (trustee), or not. There were other definitions of trust presented by other researchers. According to Schurr
& Ozanne (1985), in an exchange relationship, when a party (trustor) accepts that the promise to fijifill his/her responsibility of another party (trustee) as trustworthy, there is trust between two parties.
Likewise, Lewis & Weigert (1985) clarified that trust is "the understanding of a risky course of action on the confident expectation that all persons involved in the action will act competently and dutifully". In other words, when one side (trustor) trusts the other side (trustee), it is trustors believe that the trustee is not an opportunistic person that take advantage of the situafion.
E-commerce facilitates the transfer of fiands via digital channels which enable buying and selling products and service on the internet. Trust is recognized as one of the deciding factors that determine the relationships between e-vendors and their consumers (Gefen et al., 2003) and service marketing efforts (Berry & Parasuraman, 1991) while the lack of tnist leads to impediments in online shopping service. Fukuyania (1995) highlighted the significance of trust in a business where opportunistic behavior is involved. The nature of e-commerce does not include face-to-face interaction. This prevents consumers fi-om assessing the trustworthiness of an
e-vendor which can be done with ease in a direct interaction Hence, trust is even more crucial in Ihe e-commerce context (Reichheld & Schefter 2000).
Prior research suggests that consumers generally avoid buying from the online shop they, perceived as untrustworthy (Reichheld & Schefter 2000). When looking specifically at the online context, trust is defined as one's attitude of confident expectation regarding an online situation of risk whereby one's vulnerabilities will not be exploited (Beldad, Jong,
& Steehouder, 2010). For e-vendors, it is therefore critical to promote trust, in order lo transform a potential consumer from being a curious observer, to becoming one who is willing to transact via the site (McKnight et al., 2002), and who does not desist before confirming their purchase (Chau, Hu, Lee, &
Au, 2007).
The sources of consumer trust influence the dimensionsofconsumertrust, which are: competence, integrity and benevolence of the internet vendor In turn, these dimensions, influence the overall trust of a consumer, consequenfly impacting their intenfion to purchase online
Competence, integrity, and benevolence have been identified as three trusting beliefs that form the trust in online shopping by various past researches (McKnight et al, 2002; Chen & Dhillon, 2003;
Palvia, 2009; Oliveira et al, 2017). When consumers perceive a company as competent in a specific area, that company should be able to smoothly operate m the said area (Lu, Zhao & Wang, 2010) Competence refers to the ability of an e-vendor to deliver products and services at the desired quality for customers (Wang & Emurian. 2005), handle the transaction and fiilfill its promises made to clients (Chen & Dhillon.
2003). Competence integrates knowledge, skills.
personal values and attitudes. Competence builds on knowledge and skills and is acquired through work experience and learning by doing.
IntegritN is a trusting belief concerning vendors*
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attitude towards consumers while doing business.
What the trustee has to say to the trustor must be the same as the actions the trustee will do. Oliveira et al (2017) further explained that integrity is when internet suppliers keep their promises and commitments and do not overcharge consumers. In short, an e-vendor with integrity should follow its predetermined set of rules and promises. Or integrity is doing the right thing even when no one is watching.
Benevolence is the extent to which a trustee is believed to want to do good to the trustor, aside from an egocentric profit motive (Mayer et al., 1995).
Those who are benevolent will use all of their abilities and skills to help others to their utmost. Many factors form benevolence characterisfic of an onhne shop, namely attention, empathy, belief and acceptance.
Lu, Zhao & Wang (2010) define benevolence as the dedication of companies (trustees) in caring and doing good deeds for its consumers (trustors).
The situation at which internet vendors place consumers' interest higher than their own interest, try to improve customers' satisfaction rather than merely aim at maximizing profit is the descripfion of benevolence by Ozturen (2013). Consumers decide whether an online supplier is trustworthy or not via their perception of its competence, integrity, and benevolence (McKnight et al, 2002; Oliveira et al, 2017).
b. Research model
Based on the above discussion, the authors propose research model which consist of three sources of trust including competence, integrity and benevolence. All of these three independent variables will have positive effect on consumers' trust. The proposed model is presented in the Figure I. Table 1 demonstrates the related and the number of items of measurement for each of the construct.
The items of measurement for these constructs are derived from the previous studies.
3. Method
a. Measurement e adopted Items used to measure alKonsnua
from relevant literature. The^. me. ;:nts were lijii^is including used suceessflilly by ' " ' ' 7 / " ^ & Chen (2014) Gefen et al (2003); Palvia (2009), ™ f . ' • ' (Table 1) Based on the literature, a q u e s t m i r e l a s developed in Vietnamese and was divulged I ne usin'g Google fonn. Beside using onhne survey, distributed questionnaires were used t o Participants were required to answer each item us, g a five-point likert scale ranging fi-om 1 - strongly disagree to 5 -strongly agree.
*. Data collection
A convenient sampling with the intention of assuring the sMdy reliability and representativeness as well as reducing bias, concern over samples proportion of age, gender, occupation, and income level is employed. The sample was taken solely fi-om people residing in Hanoi. In the end, 387 valid responses are collected of which 247 from web-based and the rest 140 from the disfi-ibuted questionnaire.
A large proportion of participants in this survey are young people under the age of 35 years old (73.9%). In terms of gender, more females (52.5%) are interested in online shopping topic than males (47.5%). Students and working people (government- owned and non-government organization) dominate the sample at an accumulated proportion of 98.2
%. Single people (59.4%) is a bit more than others (40.6%). Since majority of them are still young, therefore about half of respondents (48.1%) have monthly income of under 5 million VND. Even though the majority of respondents (71.6%) purchase online frequently (quarterly, monthly and even weekly), a sizeable quantity (roughly 29%) of consumers rarely purchase online (less than once a year up to a few times a year). It could probably due to the income and low overall trust in online
Toble 2. Cronbach's alpha and mean values Constructs Cronbach's a
Competence Integrity Benevolence Overall trust
0.816
^"om^
0 760
^0 847 ~ "
QUAN TR! QUAN LY
shopping, approximately 91% of participants are only willing to purchase inexpensive items on the internet (under a million per purchase).
c. Reliability
The Cronbach's alphas of all constructs were computed to test their reliability, the Cronbach's alphas of all constructs in this research score between 0.760 and to 0.847 (Table 2). According to Nunnally (1978), reliability is achieved when Cronbach's alpha reach scores of 0.7 or higher. Hence, due to the fact that Cronbach's alpha of constructs in this study is all higher than 0.7, the reUability of it is assured.
4. Data analysis and results
To assess the etfect of trust sources to the online trust, correlation and multi-regression were employed by using SPSS.
4.1. Descriptive analysis
The mean value of three sources of trust were rated from 2.796 (integrity) to 3.405 (competence) by respondents. There is only "competence"
was rated at average level (mean score of 3.405) indicating that customer believe that e-vendor have enough abifity, expertise, experience and knowledge to do business on the internet. However, the rest two (integrity (2.796), benevolence (2.989)) are all below average (3.0), These scores reflect that consumers consider the behaviors of e-vendors in these criteria as merely acceptable at best. It is a warning towards the performance and serving attitudes of online businesses in these aspects. Specifically, it seems that internet shops haven't been able to keep their guarantees regularly (integrity) as well as act in consumers' interest (benevolence). In addition.
consumers do not feel safe involving in a relationship with e-vendors. These factors could partly contribute to the low score of trust (2.994)
4.2. Correlation analysis
Table 3 demonstrates the relationship between each construct and online trust. All of these have a significance value of 0.000 indicating a 99%
confidence in the results. The correlation coefficient between online trust and all other constructs are higher than zero. It implies that all these constructs of comprising of e-vendors' competence, e-vendors' integrity, e-vendors'benevolence posifively influence consumers' trust on e-commerce. Concerning the magnitude of impact, all the three constructs alTect online trust moderately (correlation coefficient from 0.3 to 0.5). They are of e-vendors' competence (0.326), e-vendors' integrity (0.444), e-vendors' benevolence (0.470). The most influential factor to the online trust of customers is benevolence (0.470).
Benevolence is acquired when consumers believe online-vendor act in their best interest and do best to help them.
4.3. Regression
Multiple regression was used to assess the impact of each independent variables to dependent (online trust). The result is shown in Figure 1 and Table 4. Multiple regression indicates that the model is significant at p<0.05, showing a good combination of variables in predicting "Trust" in online buying.
All the three independents (competence, integrity and benevolence) are statistically significant with customer 'trust'. All these three variables influence trust at 28.8%. Benevolence influences trust with
Table 3. Correlation matrix
Competence
Integrity
Benevolence
Trust
Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-talled) Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed)
Competence 1
. 3 9 8 "
.000 . 3 4 9 "
.000 3 2 6 "
.000
Integrity . 3 9 8 "
.000 1
. 5 2 0 "
.000 . 4 4 4 "
.000
Benevolence . 3 4 9 "
.000 . 5 2 0 "
.000 1
. 4 7 0 "
.000
Trust . 3 2 6 "
.000 . 4 4 4 "
.000 1 4 7 0 "
000 1
i
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TAP CHi CONG THIfdNG
Dependent variables
TRUST
independent variables Constant Competence Integrity Benevolence
Unstandardized Coefficients Beta ! Std. Error 1.166 1 159 .114 ' .043
211 .047 .279 .047
Standardized Coefficients^
Beta .127 .237
^302 R = 0.537 R' = 0.288 Adjusted R' = 0.283 F= 51 763
t Sig.
7.323 .000 rz650"T.0O8 I4_517 1.000
5.893^.000 Slq.= 0.00
VIF
4.481 3.719 2.279
Figure 1. Result of regression analysis between competence, benevolence and integrity witti trust in online buying
Competence
=0.127; t= 2.560; p=0.008
Integrity
=0.237; t= 4.517; p=0.000
Benevolence
=0.302; t= 5.893; p=0.000
Online trust
F=51.763; P=0,00; R = 0.288
|3=.127; t=2.560; p< .001; integrity influences trust with |3=.302; t=5.S93; p< .001; and benevolence influences trust with p=.237; t=4.5l7: p< .001.
Theresultalso shows that'benevolence'has greater influence than the 'integrity' and the 'competence' with the amount of R2= .219. The combination of benevolence, integrity and competence has greater influence on trust than when they stand as a single variable. The data shows that the combination between benevolence, integrity and competence is statistically significant with F=5I.763; R2=.219;
p< .001. This means that an onlme vendor that has performed benevolence, integrity and competence
simultaneously will be more finstworthy than an online vendor that just perform well benevolence, integrity or competence alone.
This is consistent with the research result of Ozturen (2013), Tiago Oliveira et al. (2017) which found out that companies can build trust effectively with customers by allocadng more resources to their competence, integrity, and benevolence.
5. Conclusions and recommendations This study has identified three sources of trust named 'competence', 'integrity' and nenevolence'.
It seems that internet shoppers in Hani i '/ietiiamare not satisfied with every component ^niine trust
qUANTHIPUANIY
It is evident in the fact that from the consumers' perspective, even the best-performed aspect of online shopping is still at a mediocre level (competence - mean of 3.405). Even more worrisome, integrity (mean = 2.796) and benevolence (mean = 2.989) were rated at below the average level by customers.
This implies that online vendors haven't been able to keep their promises and commitments or act or do their best to support their customer. In another way, customers do not believe that E-vendors will do the right thing when there is no one is watching and they always put their interest higher than customer interest, It is therefore online vendors should pay attenfion to improve at their performance of competence, integrity was well as benevolence.
All three dimensions: competence, integrity and benevolence are significantly influence to customer tmst. Among these three, benevolence has strongest
impact to online trust of customer, hence, e-vendors should give priority to improving it first, then integrity and competence.
It is interesting that, simultaneous improvement of all three dimensions will bring more trustworthy than just improve each of them alone.
From the perspective of e-vendors, this suggests that raising consumers' trust in e-vendors helps in increasing the likelihood of consumers' online purchase. And onlme businesses are expected to raise at the same time three sources of trust mention above in order to improve customers' evaluation of e-commerce. Enhancement of personal based trust can be achieved by distributing more resources to improve e-vendors' competence, integrity, and benevolence. Being less opportunistic and act in consumers' interest are two possible methods to improve customer trust*
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Receiving date: April 3, 2020 Reviewing date: April 11, 2020 Accepting date: April 22, 2020
Author information.
1. PH.D. NGUYEN THI MAI ANH Hanoi University of Science and Technology 2. MBA. PHAM THI THANH HUONG Hanoi University of Science and Technology
TAC DONG CUA SlT TU^ T £ , NANG LlTC VA TINH CHINH TRlTC DEN NIEM TIN CUA KHACH HANG TRONG MUA SAM TRU'C TUYEN: NGHIEN ClTU DOI VOI KHACH HANG
TAI HANOI, VIET NAM
• TS. N G U Y I N THj MAI ANH Tnidng Dai hoc Bach khoa
• ThS. PHAM THI THANH Hl/dNG Tracing Dgi hpc Bach khoa
TOM TAT:
Sir thanh cong ciia cac giao dich tren mang cung nhu thucmg mai dien tir phu thuoc Ion vao sy tin tirong cua khach hang. Cac nghien cihi tnrac day da chi ra rang nang lire, tinh chinh true va s\r tir tk cua nha ban tren mang dong vai tro rat quan trpng den viec tao dyng niem tin ciia khach hang.
Tuy nhien, cac nghien cuu thuc nghiem ve linh vuc nay con han ch6 (Tiago Oliveira et al. 2017).
Nghien ciru nay s6 tap trung vao danh gia tac dpng ciia 3 yen to: nang luc, tinh chinh true va su tir te ciia nha ban din niSm tin cua khach hang mua fi-en mang. Day la 3 yeu to da duoc nhan dien la cac c4u phan tao nen niem fin cua khach hang tt-en mang. T6ng cpng 387 phi8u da dugc thu thap.
K§t qua cho thSy, ca 3 yeu to dua vao nghien cim deu co tac dong tich cue \ a dang ke den ni^m tin cua khach hang fien mang.
Tir khoa: Sir tu: te, nSng lire, tinh chinh true, niem tin, mua sim tren mang, Ha Npi- ^ let Nam.
