Modeling Trust for Service E-Marketplaces. Case Study in the Manufacturing Domain

Industrial countries are subject to structural change towards a service society, but trading industrial services by the use of web applications remains highly restricted. The uniqueness of the value co-creation process of the service provision causes certain unpredictability of its outcome. So, service offers are more difficult to assess than product offers. Consumers perceive risks at service purchasing. This risk and the lack of trust in service stakeholders are main reasons that industrial procurement does not utilize possible benefits given by the use of electronic marketplaces at sourcing of services. The industrial service buyer evaluates the trustiness of the service provider as main process step at service discovery. This trust evaluation process needs to be supported by e-markets for services. This article elaborates the information that has to be described at e-markets, so that the industrial purchaser can decide whether to trust the service provider´s offer or not. A case study is used to explore the purchaser´s background check of the provider to retrieve factors that influence the confidence in services and the trust in a provider. A literature study is used to generalize the findings of the case study, to develop a conceptual metal model. This research provides information that has to be described at B2B e-markets for services, so that industrial buyers can evaluate the trustworthiness of an offer.