Reputation Systems: A Sudy on Trust and Reputation in Brazilian Electronic Commerce

Abstract

Reputation systems play an important role in the current electronic commerce scenario, as formulation and standardization of indices for web-stores contribute to determine customers’ buying decisions. In light of the theoretical relationship between the constructs trust and reputation, this paper intends to analyze the coherence between evaluation indexes built by reputation systems from two big business review sites. We used data from 90 Brazilian e-commerce companies (that maintain .br domains) which have achieved both reputation seals and trust seals. An ANOVA test was used in order to compare the mean of the reputation index of companies that have different trust seals. Results showed no coherence between the reputation systems and also increased the likelihood of existence of other predictive variables in this theoretical model, when it comes to assessing indices provided for those companies. This paper’s conclusions highlight the need for new studies which will allow the comprehension of particularities and variables related to reputation systems in Brazil and thus lead to a more accurate understanding of the theoretical relationship between trust and reputation.