A Theoretical Approach To Trust Services In eBusiness

In this paper we discuss trust services in e-business. Although the importance of trust for business transactions is generally recognized, the actual mechanism of trust is not well understood. This hampers the development and use of effective trust services, aiming at supporting business transactions between partners all over the world. In this paper, we model the amount of uncertainty in a decision process as a function of information. Trust is unambiguously linked to the remaining uncertainty and information provisioning. Trust services are defined as services aimed at reducing uncertainty through providing relevant information. Finally, a categorisation of trust services based on different types of information and phases in a business transaction is presented.