인터넷 경매의 신뢰형성요인과 경매참여의도에 관한 연구

Trust has been identified as a key component in many marketing and e-Commerce studies. Research on the trust has so far focused on Internet shopping mall, but have scarcely looked at trust of Internet auction sites. The purpose of this study is to find out which factors play a major role in building trust in C2C internet auction and how the built-up trust affect consumer's participation in Internet auction. The research model investigates what factors influence Internet auction site's trust. Furthermore, the research is designed to understand how the level of trust perceived by buyers influences participating intention. The trust in Internet auction consists of two types of trust: one is the trust on Internet auction site itself and the other is the trust on sellers. Based on the social network theory and the trust theory, our research model includes factors such as a buyer's propensity-to-trust, institutional characteristics, perceived reputation, perceived size of Internet auction site, and perceived benefit. This study demonstrates that buyers' trust has significant effects on the intention of auction participation. We have also found that trust can be transferred from auction site to sellers. We call this phenomenon trust transference effect'. This study shows that perceived benefits of Internet auction explain only a little portion of the intention of auction participation. Although buyers recognize the benefits of Internet auction, they would not participate in Internet auction without trust on the auction site. Thus an institutional mechanism to increase the trust of auction site should be an important strategy for Internet auction business.