Trust, Brand Equity and Brand Reality in Internet Business Relationships: An Interdisciplinary Approach

Trust and the concept of the brand are increasingly of interest in the study of business relationships on the Internet. Synthesizing studies of trust from other disciplines such as accounting, sociology, psychology and biology can provide useful insights into the application of trust, both specifically and generally, to Internet business relationships. While there is a plethora of models, those with potential application for Internet business relationship theory are described and analysed. The argument is extended to discuss the concept of the brand as a surrogate for trust, and hence as a reliable identifier of a certain cluster of values.