Perceived site security as a second order construct and its relationship to e-commerce site usage

Abstract

Understanding perceived site security has been identified as a critical issue in current B2C e-commerce practices and research. A literature review reveals that the perceived site security construct has been conceptualized as a multi-dimensional construct; yet, all empirical studies have used uni-dimensional measures. Based on the CIA triad framework, we posit that perceived site security is a second order construct consisting of three distinct aspects of perceived site security: (1) perceived site confidentiality, (2) perceived site integrity, and (3) perceived site availability. The results from this study reveal that the new second order structure of perceived site security measure is superior to both the group factor structure and one factor structure. The results of the structural model also support the nomological validity of the newly conceptualized perceived site security measure. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.