摘要：In the context of e-commerce, consumer trust is commonly defined as a derivative of thewillingness to be exposed to the outcomes of the uncertain actions of another party. By thisdefinition, trust is an attitude that forms in the context of cognitions about the perceived risksposed by a transaction. Despite the commonality and prevalence of this general definition,studies continue to examine consumer trust without otherwise accounting for the effect ofperceived risk or vice versa. This study compares partial research models and measurements thatomit either consumer trust or perceived risk to a full research model that includes both trust andrisk. Specifically, this study compares and contrasts three survey instruments: one that measuresonly consumer trust, one that measures only perceived risk, and one that measures bothconsumer trust and perceived risk. An experiment was performed using a relatively high dollartransaction involving a functional product while manipulating vendor-brand equity and productbrandequity. The results of this study indicate that manipulation of vendor-brand equity andproduct-brand equity does have a statistically significant effect on perceptions of consumer trust,perceived risk and willingness to transact. Analysis also indicates evidence of omitted variablebias as exhibited by the presence or absence of survey questions measuring consumer trust andthe presence or absence of survey questions measuring perceived risk.
关键词：Consumer trust; perceived risk; willingness to transact
