| Trust has been accepted as a critical element in electronic commerce due to the fact that online transactions are characterized as a process that involves uncertainty and risk. Trust also has been thought of as the most effective means of reducing uncertainty and risk. The effect of measures to build and maintain trust in e-commerce is subject to person-specific and situation-related factors that cannot be controlled by web vendors. Based on the fact that trust is a mechanism to reduce complexity, a trait inherent to online transactions, this study has explored factors that influence trust during online transactions. Self-efficacy, which is an important factor in explaining motives and motivations of individual behaviors and choices, has an impact on trust building and uncertainty reduction. By incorporating self-efficacy into electronic commerce research, this study expands the understanding of what factors play a role in reducing uncertainty. Based on previous self-efficacy studies on the relationship between general self-efficacy and domain-specific self-efficacy, self-efficacy has been handled in two parts; general self-efficacy and online transaction self-efficacy. The result shows that both categories of self-efficacy affect trust in the web vendor and, consequently, positively influencing the respondent's purchase intentions. |
