Melanie Fritz 11
Challenges for future research regard the further development of rules supporting the identifi-
cation of an appropriate combination of trust and control elements for first time transactions in
different scenarios of food networks. This in includes the identification of appropriate multi-
media trust and control communication as well as “real world” trust and control elements
where necessary. This combination would lead to “blended commerce” building on electronic
and traditional ways of communicating trust signal and control mechanisms in a transaction.
The challenges lie in the derivation of appropriate multimedia elements for trust and control in
agrifood transactions, the exploitation of information and communication technology and mul-
timedia potentials to offer innovative ways to communicate trust and control, and the assess-
ment of the interchangeability potential of trust and control elements in agrifood transactions.
6 Conclusions
Business networks are situations where companies in principle act in relatively stable relation-
ships to exchange complex products along their production chain and where the product qual-
ity is difficult to analyze and needs explanations. However, dynamic changes in the supply or
demand situation repeatedly force companies to start new relations to open new supply sources
and to find new markets for their products. This is particularly true for the situation in food net-
works. E-commerce with its potentials for market transparency and transaction efficiency
opens a wide range of opportunities to start new business relations. Transactions with new
partners in general involve various uncertainties and risks, though. This is particularly true for
complex products such as, e.g., food products. E-commerce is often considered as anonymous,
which even enhances the perception of risks and uncertainties as opposed to the traditional way
of starting new relations where managers often rely on their personal impression of a potential
business partner.
To reduce risk and uncertainties in transactions with a new partner, many different kinds of
information need to be communicated between seller and buyer to create trust and confidence
in the transaction process and to lead to decisions for the transaction. In e-commerce environ-
ments being based on information and communication technology, the support and provision
of new potentials of information and communication is inherent. Due diligence is a mechanism
known in company mergers and acquisitions and refers to the reduction of risks and uncertain-
ties from the transaction through the provision of information about the company, its organiza-
tion, or its market (Berens et al., 2005). This paper has discussed the development of a due
diligence for electronic transactions with new partners in business networks with complex
goods. The due diligence is meant as a means to reduce perceived risks and uncertainties for
the businesses and create trust and confidence in the transaction with appropriate information.
The conceptual framework for the due diligence is based on the principles of transaction deci-
sion making and the four phases of a transaction process. The operationalization of the frame-
work assigns trust signals and control elements to the four process phases to be communicated
during the process.