E-Trust Readiness Indexes Assessment at E-Transactions in the Context of B2C E-Commerce

Objectives: In this study, it is tried to identify, classify and present the factors affecting the level of ETRI (E-Trust Readiness Indexes) of the companies that are active in the field of B2C e-commerce. Methods/Analysis: The values of these factors can be used as an indicator to assess the amount of readiness of the e-commerce company in order to be trusted in an online transaction, by the online customers or the other companies. To conduct this study, at first, the effective factors in the development, growth and maintenance of the e-trust in the e-commerce environment was extracted and then using the opinions and recommendations from professional experts, those factors were evaluated, rated and classified. Findings: The considered assumptions about the effect of these factors on the e-trust of online customers of the studied statistical society from their point of view, were collected using the method of information gathering by an online survey. The resulted data were analyzed by a structural equation model as well as LISREL software. It was found that those six factors that were studied, are actually the important effective factors in the level of e-trust readiness to an e-commerce company. In addition, this study was also examined by some of the experts in the field of e-commerce, and the evaluation results showed that the effective factors in the experts' perspective are similar to those proposed by the opinions of the studied statistical society. Novelty/Improvement: For the first time the issue of assessment and evaluating the level of ETRI (E-Trust Readiness Indexes) in the e-commerce companies of type B2C is defined and its method of estimation is provided by the author. The results of this research can be used as a new method for assessment of the e-commerce companies by the supervisor organizations in order to rate their readiness for being trusted by the online customers. The supervisor organizations regulate and organize the affairs between the e-commerce companies and customers. This index can also be considered as the rank of the company's reliability and trust readiness compared to other active companies, by using a combination the symbols of e-trust and the e-trust certificate.