Online trust systems aim to translate the role that trust has in the traditional world onto the virtual platforms based on the use of network infrastructure based on the modern P2P networks. Establishing the inter-dependence between these systems and the human-factor is essential for reducing and understanding the inherent complexity of the open platforms, and for improving the user-experience and system-performance. This work determines the systemic features of trust and introduces a novel framework of design properties based on the principles of General Systems Theory. We determine the systemic properties which lack in the current technical solutions, and incorporate social factors into the design-guidelines of trust systems. This paper is the first study applying fundamental social science principles from General Systems Theory and case-study research for the purpose of theory-building and evaluation of technical human-centric solutions.
COBISS.SI-ID: 21257190
The behaviour patterns resulting from the interactions of many trusting entities in e-commerce systems may be much more complex than the performance of each of the individuals separately; thus, simple rules of trusting behaviour give rise to complex, emergent patterns. A major reason these emergent properties were neither successfully captured nor adequately treated by the current formal models is the global trend of addressing issues related to technical systems in a mechanistic manner - considering the system simply as a sum of its components and neglecting the interactions between those components. This work introduces the concept of an organismic property of human-centric e-commerce systems and reveals new areas of applicability of trust as an organismic system trait. The goal of the research presented, is two-fold: providing a novel view of treating trust-related issues in e-commerce systems, and pointing to the missteps that can be brought by a systemic ignorance of the organismic nature of on-line trust systems.
COBISS.SI-ID: 26036007