Organizational trust in a networked world: Analysis of the interplay between social factors and Information and Communication Technology

Purpose – Trust is a social factor at the foundations of human action. The pervasiveness of trust explains why it has been studied by a large variety of disciplines, and its complexity justifies the difficulties in reaching a shared understanding and definition. As for all the social factors, trust is continuously evolving as a result of the changes in social, economic and technological conditions. The internet and many other Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) solutions have changed organizational and social life. Such mutated scenarios challenged what researchers know about trust, thus several studies tried to investigate the difference between online and traditional (physical) environments. The purpose of this paper is to solve this multi-dimensional puzzle by presenting a conceptual framework that will take into consideration the complexity of ICT mediated-trust. Design/methodology/approach – The extant literature still lacks a homogeneous framework and presents a large amount of different perspectives, each one addressing a very specific issue. By using the methodology suggested by Short and Cropanzano the paper proposes a conceptual model for understanding the dynamics of trust in online settings. In doing so the authors' adopted the Actor Network Theory conceptual frame for disentangling the ambiguous role of technology in its relation with trust. Findings – This paper provides an ultimate conceptual model on trust in virtual settings. Research limitations/implications – The proposed model will help systematize the extant contributions and also identify the gaps that can be addressed by future researches. Originality/value – The model permits the understanding of the dynamics of trust in online settings.