Understanding trust in digital platforms from relational to functional cues

Abstract This paper proposes and empirically demonstrates the concept of Trust-as-a-Service (TaaS)—a co-constructed, market-driven construct that describes the process of trust formation and emergence in platform-mediated service partnerships. This study investigates and explains the way in which relational cues and functional cues affect trust, as well as the moderating role of customer relationship duration. A cross-sectional, quantitative survey was carried out on a sample of 677 respondents who had used platform-based providers of services in India. Eight trusts constructs were measured: similarity, empathy, politeness, competence, customization, reliability, promptness, and length of relationship. Main effects and moderation hypotheses testing were done by modeling the variables in a hierarchical regression with an interaction structure. Findings show that relational cues (Similarity, Empathy, Politeness) play a significant role in determining trust during the early relationships but fade away with time. By contrast, functional cues (Competence, Customization, Reliability, Promptness) are predictive of long-term relationships. Length of relationship was not directly related to trust nor moderated the impact of any of them, although overall relationships were significant and confirmed the presence of a time pattern in the mechanisms of trust formation. The paper will help develop a more experience-based model of interpreting trust in digital service platforms. It connects to an affective and cognitive view of trust and points out that trust is co-produced and dynamic rather than a fixed act of believing. The TaaS model offers theoretical and empirical lessons for building trust in digitally mediated service spaces.