With the emergence of the Internet, electronic commerce and online auction sites we see many systems that are claimed to facilitate the development of trust relationships. However, the authors of these systems rely on various intuitive definitions of trust in the description of their systems, causing confusion among readers.
This thesis clarifies the meaning of trust in an online trading environment. We present a qualitative model that describes the development of trust, reciprocity and reputation in an online trading environment. We validate our model by demonstrating its application to three online trading systems. Our analyses indicate how interpersonal and institutional trust relationships are developed by currently available online trading systems. We hope that future designers, debuggers, analysts, and users of online trading systems will find inspiration and insight from reading this thesis.