729
Transfer From Offline Trust to Key Online
Perceptions: An Empirical Study
Kun Chang Lee, Member, IEEE, Inwon Kang, and D. Harrison McKnight
Abstract—Research has provided little evidence that trust in an offline bank can encourage adoption of the bank’s online business.
Yet, more and more brick-and-mortar banks and other businesses are investing in online Web sites that supposedly “leverage” positive consumer impressions of their offline business. The main purpose of this study is to test empirically whether or not trust in an offline bank transfers (i.e., influences) perceptions about that company’s online bank. In order to do so, we analyze how trust in an offline bank influences four perceptions about its online banking counterpart (flow, structural assurance, perceived Web site satisfaction, and perceived extent of future use). The study tests the hypothesized influence of offline trust using a sample of 199 South Korean consumers responding about offline and online banking. Results show that offline trust influences all four online perceptions, just as proposed. These effects were especially prominent among respondents new to online banking. Thus, offline-to-online transfer should be considered when designing strategies for online channels. This study fills a key research gap by examining transfer of cognitive beliefs from an offline to an online setting.
Index Terms—Cognitive overhead, coherence, extent of use, flow, marketing channel, online banking, online trust, structural assurance, trust, trust transfer, Web site satisfaction.
I. INTRODUCTION
RUST is a central construct in the study of commercial transactions, both in information systems (IS) and such reference disciplines as marketing, sociology, and organizational behavior [27], [31], [73], [75], [95]. Trust plays an important role in both offline and online commercial transactions [106].
Several IS studies
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