3
party, which refers to the influence of proximal antecedents or drivers of
trust. Thus far, the trust literature has focused predominantly on a relatively small subset of proximal trust antecedents known as trustworthiness
(Baer and Colquitt 2018). Trustworthiness is an aggregate perception of
the characteristics of another party along three sub-dimensions: ability,
integrity, and benevolence (Mayer et al. 1995). These concepts have been
applied within the context of technology and appear regularly in the information systems literature (see van der Werff et al. 2018 for a review). This
section will provide an overview of several potential antecedents of trust in
cloud computing organised into two broad categories: knowledge based
antecedents, including trustworthiness, and heuristic antecedents.
1.2.1
Knowledge Based Antecedents
The two aspects of trustworthiness most commonly studied in the trust in
technology literature are ability and integrity. Ability or competence refers
to a perception that the other party possesses the skills and knowledge to
complete the tasks expected. This aspect of trustworthiness is readily
applicable to perceptions of technology in terms of its performance levels
including accuracy, capability and functionality (McKnight et al. 2011;
Söllner et al. 2016). That is, can this cloud service do what I need it to do
well? Integrity generally refers to the perception that another party adheres
to a set of principles that the trustor finds acceptable, acts honestly and
fulfils their promises (Mayer et al. 1995; McKnight et al. 1998). In the
technology environment, this concept has typically been translated as a
perception of reliability and consistency in performance. For instance, will
this cloud service do what I need it to do every time I use it? In this setting
in particular, the conceptualisation of integrity is expanded to integrate
aspects of predictability and the extent to which it is possible to anticipate
the other party’s behaviour accurately (van der Werff et al. 2018).
Interestingly, as they are applied in the computer science literature (see
Chap. 7), these aspects of trustworthy cloud computing are sometimes
portrayed as an objective feature of the technology rather than a more
subjective user’s perception of the technology as the original trust theory
intended. This difference has particularly important implications in situations where the decision maker is not a technology expert and so subjective perceptions of trustworthiness are likely to differ significantly from
any objective reality.
1 UNDERSTANDING TRUST AND CLOUD COMPUTING: AN INTEGRATED…
party, which refers to the influence of proximal antecedents or drivers of
trust. Thus far, the trust literature has focused predominantly on a relatively small subset of proximal trust antecedents known as trustworthiness
(Baer and Colquitt 2018). Trustworthiness is an aggregate perception of
the characteristics of another party along three sub-dimensions: ability,
integrity, and benevolence (Mayer et al. 1995). These concepts have been
applied within the context of technology and appear regularly in the information systems literature (see van der Werff et al. 2018 for a review). This
section will provide an overview of several potential antecedents of trust in
cloud computing organised into two broad categories: knowledge based
antecedents, including trustworthiness, and heuristic antecedents.
1.2.1
Knowledge Based Antecedents
The two aspects of trustworthiness most commonly studied in the trust in
technology literature are ability and integrity. Ability or competence refers
to a perception that the other party possesses the skills and knowledge to
complete the tasks expected. This aspect of trustworthiness is readily
applicable to perceptions of technology in terms of its performance levels
including accuracy, capability and functionality (McKnight et al. 2011;
Söllner et al. 2016). That is, can this cloud service do what I need it to do
well? Integrity generally refers to the perception that another party adheres
to a set of principles that the trustor finds acceptable, acts honestly and
fulfils their promises (Mayer et al. 1995; McKnight et al. 1998). In the
technology environment, this concept has typically been translated as a
perception of reliability and consistency in performance. For instance, will
this cloud service do what I need it to do every time I use it? In this setting
in particular, the conceptualisation of integrity is expanded to integrate
aspects of predictability and the extent to which it is possible to anticipate
the other party’s behaviour accurately (van der Werff et al. 2018).
Interestingly, as they are applied in the computer science literature (see
Chap. 7), these aspects of trustworthy cloud computing are sometimes
portrayed as an objective feature of the technology rather than a more
subjective user’s perception of the technology as the original trust theory
intended. This difference has particularly important implications in situations where the decision maker is not a technology expert and so subjective perceptions of trustworthiness are likely to differ significantly from
any objective reality.
1 UNDERSTANDING TRUST AND CLOUD COMPUTING: AN INTEGRATED…