Authors:
Fabio Calefato
;
Filippo Lanubile
and
Nicole Novielli
Affiliation:
University of Bari, Italy
Keyword(s):
Social Media, Cognitive Trust, Affective Trust, Empirical Study.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Electronic Commerce
;
Enterprise Information Systems
;
Human Factors
;
Human-Computer Interaction
;
Physiological Computing Systems
;
Society, e-Business and e-Government
;
Software Agents and Internet Computing
;
Web 2.0 and Social Networking Controls
;
Web Information Systems and Technologies
Abstract:
Trust is a concept that has been widely studied in e-commerce since it represents a key issue in building successful customer-supplier relationships. In this sense, social software represents a powerful channel for establishing a direct communication with customers. As a consequence, companies are now investing in social media for building their social digital brand and strengthening relationships with their customers. In this paper we investigate the role of social media in the process of trust building, with particular attention to the case of small companies. Our findings show that social media contribute to build affective trust more than traditional websites, by fostering the affective commitment of customers.