Digitally-enabled antecedents of trust, repurchase intention and the impact of blockchain traceability labels

Abstract

Despite the growing literature focusing on digitalization in e-commerce, there remains a scarcity of studies exploring innovative ways to enhance online consumers’ trust. Our study investigates the digitally-enabled antecedents of diverse trust targets and the moderating effect of blockchain traceability labels on trust-related behaviors. The data was collected from 346 consumers through the between-subject quasi-experiment in a Chinese digital commerce platform, and structural equation modeling was used to analyze the research model and hypotheses. Our findings reveal that digitally-enabled product informativeness and product quality are important antecedents contributing to trust in products, while digitally-enabled platform reputation and platform assurance serve as significant precursors for trust in platform. Furthermore, a multi-group analysis discloses that the roles of trust targets’ effects on repurchase intention are dependent upon the adoption of blockchain traceability labels. Expanding the trust-building framework by exploring digitally-enabled antecedents towards two distinct trust targets, our study delivers valuable insights into the digital transformation process of e-commerce.