Abstract

The concept of trust is central to studies of e-commerce as it is arguably the largest barrier to the wider adoption of online commerce in terms of purchasing goods. While the vast majority of consumers do not hesitate to give out credit card details over the phone, in stores and elsewhere, many consumers are averse to giving out credit card details and personal information over the Internet (Armstrong, Barr, Coutts, Coutts, Knowles and Moore, 2003). To explore consumers’ lack of trust further, this chapter is structured into three sections. These are: social ontology, trust and its relationship to technology; dataveillance and theoretical implications of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) strategies; and real-time feedback and the commercial environment of instantaneity.