Studying How E-Markets Evaluation Can Enhance Trust in Virtual Business Communities

Nikos Manouselis et al. 427

Studying How E-Markets Evaluation Can Enhance Trust in
Virtual Business Communities

Nikos Manouselis, Constantina Costopoulou, Alexander B. Sideridis
Informatics Laboratory, Div. of Informatics, Mathematics & Statistics,
Dept. of Science, Agricultural University of Athens,

75 Iera Odos Str., 11855, Athens, Greece,
{nikosm, tina, as}@aua.gr

Abstract

One of the major drawbacks of conducting business online is the raised level of risk associated
with business transactions. Potential business partners usually have limited information about
each other’s reliability or product / service quality before an online transaction. In this paper,
we focus on the problem of selecting a trustful electronic market (e-market), in order to
perform business transactions with it. In particular, we examine how the decision of selecting
an appropriate e-market can be facilitated by an e-market recommendation algorithm. For this
purpose, a metadata model for collecting and storing e-market evaluations from the members
of a virtual business community in a reusable and interoperable manner is introduced. Then, an
e-market recommendation algorithm that can synthesize existing e-market evaluations stored
using the metadata model, is designed. Finally, a scenario of how the presented e-market
recommendation algorithm can support a virtual agribusiness community of the organic
agriculture sector is discussed.

Keywords: E-market, metadata, recommender system, virtual community

1. Introduction

Increasing use of the World Wide Web (Web) as a business commercial tool raises interest in
understanding the key issues in building relationships between business partners on the
Internet (Fritz et al., 2005). Trust, a fundamental principle of every business relationship, is
defined as the expectation that the other partners will behave in accordance with commitments,
negotiate honestly, and not take advantage, even when opportunity rises (Hosmer, 1995). It has
a vital influence on physical business transactions and even more on electronic ones. In an
environment of risk and uncertainty as the Web, enterprises must develop strategies for
establishing trustworthiness, and systems should be developed to assist business partners in
assessing the level of trust they should place in an e-commerce transaction (Patton & Josang,
2004).

When transacting with Internet-based electronic markets (e-markets), one of the major
drawbacks is the raised level of risk associated with business transactions. An e-market is an
information system intended to provide potential business partners with online services that
will facilitate information exchange, and will support business transactions. When it is
operated from an unknown (and therefore still untrusted) entity, potential business partners

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