Formal aspects of a generic model of trust for electronic commerce

Abstract

We present a generic model of trust for electronic commerce. The basic components of the model are party trust and control trust. We argue that an agent's trust in a transaction with another party is a combination of the trust in the other party and the trust in the control mechanisms for the successful performance of the transaction. This distinction is in particular relevant for international business-to-business electronic commerce, where trading partners often do not know each other before the trading takes place. The generic trust model can be used for the design of trust related value-added services in electronic commerce. The trust an agent has in the control mechanisms depends on the agent's understanding of the control mechanism. We give a formal analysis of the understanding that is required to obtain trust in control mechanisms in electronic commerce.