How and When Trustworthiness Beliefs Influence Digital Commerce Behavior: A Regulatory Focus Perspective

Trustworthiness is considered a key element for any successful online retailing initiative. However, extant digital commerce research has displayed mixed and contradictory findings regarding consumer outcomes of trustworthiness beliefs. The current study explains these mixed effects by investigating how and when trustworthiness beliefs can play a significant role in driving digital commerce behaviors. The authors draw on regulatory focus and regulatory fit theory to examine how trustworthiness beliefs—ability, benevolence, and integrity—influence consumers’ evaluations, purchase intentions, and digital commerce behaviors (e.g., rankings and reviews) toward online retailers, based on their regulatory orientations. Using a sequential multistudy design, the authors test the hypotheses through two experiments followed by a survey. The findings demonstrate that the positive consumer outcomes are the highest for (1) prevention-focused individuals with strong beliefs in the online retailer's ability to fulfill its promises and (2) promotion-focused consumers with strong beliefs that the online retailer is benevolent, and comparably strong for (3) all individuals who believe in the online retailer's integrity. Managerial implications from these findings are further discussed in a value-enhancing manner.