Understanding the effect of third-party web assurance seals on consumers' trust, from the perspective of the seal providers

Web assurance seals provide a business assurance service for e-commerce. Online vendors use web assurance seals to enhance consumers' perception of their trustworthiness. However, there are a few empirical studies examining the effect of web assurance seals on consumers' trust from the perspective of seal providers. This study examines the seal providers' perceived security of assurance services by proposing a conceptual model, which delineates the determinants of the seal providers' levels of perceived satisfaction and perceived trust. To empirically test the model, partial least square method is applied to analyze the data collected from 189 respondents in Taiwan. Empirical results indicate that perceived satisfaction of seal providers to web assurance services is positively related to their trust belief and intention to their own services. Empirical results also suggest that seal providers' expectations of their assurance services decreases with their perceived disconfirmation. Therefore, this study reveals that seal providers should pay attention to perceived disconfirmation and the expectations for web assurance seals when they develop new assurance services.