Formation of trust in e-commerce websites in Nigeria

2013 dissertation for MSc in International Business Management. Selected by academic staff as a good example of a masters level dissertation. This research investigates trust formation in e-commerce websites in Nigeria. Trust has been identified as an important factor that influences customer’s decision to engage in making purchases on the internet. With the aid of data analysis six categories were discovered as the antecedents of customer trust; ‘Past experience’, ‘Reputation’, ‘Confidentiality/privacy/security’, ‘Performance/Reliability’, ‘Feedback’ and ‘Legislation’. Findings are drawn from qualitative interviews on Nigerians who engage in online shopping. It was revealed that past experience with web vendors, reputation of the vendor, security of data, web vendor’s performance, feedbacks and government legislations are strong antecedents of customer trust. This study extends the research on customer trust and also revealed antecedents responsible for the trust formation in e-commerce websites. The six categories discovered does not only support earlier studies on trust formation but also provides new insights on how trust can be induced by the web merchants to receive patronage from a customer or potential buyer