Consumer Responses to the CPA WEBTRUST™ Assurance

Abstract

With the advent of WEBTRUST™, accountants are providing assurances about online transactions to consumers who may otherwise hesitate to engage in electronic commerce. This study explores the influence of assurance services on consumers' online transaction expectations and intent to purchase online. In short, the study supports the notion that many of the marketing efforts associated with WEBTRUST™ can have desirable effects on consumer behavior. Results suggest that consumers who pay more attention to the WEBTRUST™ seal and disclosures at the web site or who have been exposed to WEBTRUST™ advertising have higher online transaction expectations and stronger intent to purchase online than their counterparts. Similarly, consumers' knowledge about CPAs positively influences their online transaction expectations, but not intent to purchase online. However, the study also indicates areas of concern for practitioners and researchers. Only 56 percent of subjects noticed the seal, 27 percent clicked on the seal, and 8.5 percent had seen ads related to WEBTRUST™, indicating a need to investigate more effective marketing. In addition, these results suggest that consumers believe the WEBTRUST™ service should and does provide assurances that are clearly beyond its scope.

Investigating initial trust toward e‐tailers from the elaboration likelihood model perspective

“…Thus, consumers will perceive that shopping on a Web site with a seal displayed is secure and safe when he recognizes the seals. Kovar, Burke, and Kovar (2000) found that assurance seals positively influence consumers' expectations toward an on-line transaction, such as perceived assurances for a Web site. Kaplan and Nieschwietz (2003) also suggest that third-party seals are positively related to consumers' assurance perceptions.…”

The effect of encryption on Internet purchase intent in multiple vendor and product risk settings

“…Participants in B2C must make decisions involving risky outcomes when determining whether or not to reveal confidential information to unknown thirdparties [20,24,35]. Specifically in the B2C environment, web visitors must decide prior to purchase commitment (1) if they will make a purchase and (2) how they will pay for it.…”

“…Prior research examines the effects of various assurance seals on consumer purchase intent (PI) and finds mixed results [3,21,24,[33][34][35]. Some assurance seals either explicitly or implicitly include policies regarding encryption.…”

“…This issue is important since if the additional capabilities of assurance seals over and above encryption does not impact PI, web designers may focus visitors' attention towards transaction security via encryption as opposed to devoting resources to direct visitors' attention to the assurance seal, hoping they (1) recognize the seal and (2) comprehend its purpose, two outcomes that remain uncertain [18,24,33]. Additionally, the costs associated with additional assurance seal features may not be worth the benefit.…”

Importance for Assurance from Transparent Windows: A Dual Motivation Approach

“…Consumers' decision to use technologies is often influenced by assurances (Kovar et al, 2000). Such demand has been found to be a major driver of technologies evaluation (Kim and Stoel, 2004).…”