Understanding the drivers of online trust and intention to buy on a website: An emerging market perspective

Abstract

In recent years, examining the determinants and outcomes of online trust in emerging online markets in the North Africa Region has been lacking. Therefore, the purpose of this study is twofold: first, to gain knowledge of the key predictors of online trust in Morocco; second, to investigate the consequences of online trust on perceived risk, attitude, and online purchase intentions in Morocco. A research model based on the work of Jarvenpaa et al. (2000) was empirically tested. Data was collected from a total of 414 experienced online buyers through online surveys. The PLS approach using SmartPLS 3 was performed to test the hypotheses. The results demonstrate that the effect of perceived size and perceived reputation on online trust is positively significant; online trust has a significant positive influence on attitude and significant negative influence on perceived risk; online trust and attitude positively influence purchase intention; perceived risk has a significant negative effect on attitude and the negative influence of perceived risk on purchase intentions was found to be not significant. The post-hoc analysis further shows that attitude transmits completely the effect of perceived risk on purchase intention, while perceived risk partially mediates the effects of online trust on attitude.