Towards Enhancing Trust on Chinese E-Commerce

Abstract  譯：摘要
E-Commerce has been much more popular in western countries  where the development of E-Commerce sysytems has been relatively matured. While the technology and social credit environment are well developed,E-Commerce is relativelt new and receives fewer acceptances within commercial industries in China.Building trust has been identified as one of the major concerns in E-Commerce.
譯：電子商務在西方國家已經非常流行，並且電子商務系統在這些國家的發展也相對成熟。雖然在中國科技和社會誠信已經得到了較好的發展，但是電子商務相對來說比較新奇，在商業行業內並沒有被很多人接受。建立誠信體系已經被當作電子商務的主要任務。
In this paper, we will develop an computational model, which may be used to improve the trust-building relationship among consumers, retailers and authorities. This model considers a number of factors including direct experiences,customer recommendations, and authority certification,while parties involved in the E-Commerce activities can confidently establish and reliably enhance the trustworthiness.
譯：在這篇文章中，我們會建立一種可提高消費者、零售商和政府部門信任關係的計算模型，此模型考慮多項因素，包括直接經驗、客戶的建議和權威認證，而涉及電子商務活動的各方可以信心十足地建立和可靠地提高可信度。
1. Introduction 譯：緒論
"With the rapid development of Internet technonlogy, the landscape of exchanging information and doing business has benn completely changed".As a new way of doing business, E-Commerce is increasingly affecting,changing and event repalcing the readitional commerce approach.People are increasingly accepting and using E-Commerce than ever before.Without any doubt,many network application,based on initial Door to Door to B2B,B2C,and C2C models,have a profund influence on the global economy.However most of the development of E-Commerce is primarily achieved within a handful of countries,particularly in countries like US, Japan and some of European countries.Since the advent of the Internet in the late 1990's in China,various applications can be seen in the following years,which stirred thousands of ambitious young Chieses people to establish their own business on-line with a dream of getting wealthy overnight. Over the past few years, almost 70% of the growth in Internet users from all over the world occurred only in China.However,in terms of E-Commerce development, there is still a gap between China and the developed countries.With the increased popularity of the Internet and the continuous improvement of Internet technologies, the development of Chinese E-Commerce can be attributed to various problems and barriers. Some of these problems such as payment method,distribution problem, and security issues have been identified as the biggest barrier that needs to be overcome in long-term.
譯：“隨着互聯網技術的快速發展，信息交換和開展商務的方式已經完全發生改變”。作爲一種開展商務的新方式，電子商務正越來越多地影響、改變甚至替換傳統商務模式。人民正在以前所未有的態度逐漸接受和使用電子商務。毫無疑問，很多建立在室內的B2B、B2C 和C2C 模式的網絡應用，正在對全球經濟產生深刻的影響。但是大部分電子商務的發展最主要是在少數幾個國家，尤其是美國、日本和其它一些歐洲國家。隨着中國九十年代後期互聯網的普遍應用，在接下來的許多年裏出現了各種應用，激勵着成千上萬懷着一夜致富的夢想的年輕人在網上建立他們自己的事業。近年來，全世界互聯網用戶的增長量有多達70%的來自中國。但是，在電子商務的發展方面，中國和發達國家仍然存在差距。隨着互聯網的不斷普及和互聯網技術的不斷髮展，電子商務的發展才僅僅做了一個印象深刻的開始。阻礙中國電子商務發展的原因可歸結爲很多問題和障礙。有些問題比如支付方式、配送問題和安全問題已經稍微緩解，不幸的是消費者對網絡零售商信任的缺失已經被當作未來長時間內需要克服的最大障礙。
In the paper, we will identify the challenges in developing Chinese E-Commerce and propose a model to cooperate with current E-Commerce system as a mean of enhancing trustworthiness. The paper is organized into 6 sections. Section 2 introduces the current standing of E-Commerce, and then Section 3 briefly reviews the challenges in developing E-Commerce,and examines the "Trust problem",which is identified as the major obstacle that hinders the spreading of E-Commerce in China. In Section 4,we propose a computational model that can be used to address the trust problem.Section 5 specifically discusses how to apply the model to improve trustworthiness, and gives a case study in Section 6.Section7 concludes the paper by discussing further directions for improving trust between E-Commerce users.
譯：在本文中，我們將會分析中國發展電子商務面臨的挑戰，並且建立一種與當前電子商務系統兼容的模式，作爲鞏固誠信度的一種方式。本篇論文分爲6 節，第2節介紹了當前電子商務的現狀，第3 節簡要的回顧了發展電子商務面臨的挑戰，並且檢查作爲阻礙中國當前發展電子商務最大障礙的“誠信問題”。在第4 節中，我們提出了一種可以處理誠信問題的計算模型。第5 節討論瞭如何應用這一模型提升誠信度，並且在第6 節中給出了一個案例。第7 節通過討論在各電子商務用戶之間鞏固信任度的未來方向總結了該篇論文。
2 Current Chinese E-Commerce Standing  譯：中國電子商務現狀
2.1 Issues in E-Commerce  譯：電子商務問題
Trust has always been the main concern among most of Chinses E-Commerce companies. On one hand,people are impressed by doing business on-line,but on the other hand they are still worried about using E-Commerce widely.Consequently, a gap appeared betwwen on-line retailers'interst in attracting shoppers to their electronic storefronts and many consumers'trust in those activities.Neverthless, researches have shown that the trust problem is not only technical problem, but more of a social problem caused by various reasones.First and foremost,for historical reasons,people may lack of confidence with others,therefore it's quite difficult to put trust in someone else in the beginning.Secondly,the commercial law and regulation for E-Commerce cannot fully protect the interests of consumers and merchants.Therefore E-Commerce users lack the confidence to take the risk when communication with an unfamiliar party. Thirdly, the socail credit sysytem and payment sysytem in China are still not strong enough when carrying complex E-Commerce transactions,so that on-line business frauds may happen,and harm consumers.Last but not least, Internet security and cryptography techniques,which can increase consumers' confidence in on-line activity,are still unser developement.Due to all these issues, E-Commerce specialists commonly regard that the bottleneck of Chinese E-Commerce is as a trust problem than anything else.
譯：信作一直是中國大部分電子商務公司最關心的問題。一方面，人們對在網絡上開展商務印象深刻，但另一方面他們仍然擔心廣泛地使用電子商務這一方式。因此，在網絡零售商通過吸引顧客來他們網絡商店購物的利益和顧客對他們這些活動的信任之間出現了鴻溝。儘管如此，研究者發現信任問題不僅僅是技術問題，更多地是由各種原因引起的社會問題。首先是歷史原因，人們對其它人缺乏信心，因此一開始要建立對他人的信任是很難的。第二，商業法律和規章不能完全保護顧客的商人的權益。因此當電子商務用戶與不熟悉方進行交流時，缺乏信心去承擔風險。第三，中國的信任體系和支付系統還不夠強大，不能處理複雜的電子商務交易，因此在線欺詐行爲可能發生並且損害消費者的利益。最後，能夠增加消費者信心的網絡安全和加密技術還處於發展之中。由於上述問題，電子商務專家們普遍認爲，制約中國電子商務發展的瓶頸正是信任問題。
2.2 Opportunities of Chinese E-Commerce  譯：中國電子商務的發展機遇
In 2005,Chinses E-Commerce has been experiencing the upsurgr of B2C markets. With the recognition of trust problem,many retailers are experimenting with various trust building strategies to establish trustworthiness towards E-Retailers. Establishing trust between E-Commerce users is a long term process.Apart from more education or training in the long term,we can resort to technology to enhance consumer trust in an unfamiliar E-retailer. One effective method is to participate in third-party assurance programs,which assist consumers in an accessible level of trust they should place in an E-Commerce transaction.In that way, merchants who agree to meet a third party assurers standards can either use the assurer-certified technology,or agree to be found in some way by the assurers procadures or oversight are registered by the assruer and permitted to display an identifying logo or assurance seal on their website.Consumers can reveal specific validation of the merchants good-standing with the assurer or additional disclosures related to the merchants' business practices or history.Some theories suggest that trust in an E- retailer can be specifically defined as consumers'willingness to accept vulnerability in an on-line transaction based on their positive expectations regarding an E- Retailers future behavior.By evaluating a party's post behavior and tracking its activities, the party's future behavior can be expected and trust level can be considered so that consumers can make purchasing decision according to the trust level of E-Retailer.In this paper, a third party assurance program that can be cooperated with the current E-Commerce sysytem is proposed.Through tracking E-Retailer's activity records,collecting consumer experiences,and recommendations,the computation model is capable of considering the level that consumer can trust an unfamiliar E-Retailer.More detail about the model is described in Section 4.
譯：2005 年，中國電子商務經歷了B2C 市場的發展高潮。隨着信任問題被逐漸接受，許多零售商正在嘗試各種信託建設的戰略，建立對電子零售商的可信性。在電子商務用戶之間建立信任體系是一項長期的過程。從長遠看，除了加強教育和培訓外，我們可以藉助技術手段去加強消費者對不熟悉電子零售商的信任。一種有效的方法是使第三方擔保機構參與進來，協助他們在電子商務交易過程中獲得觸手可及的信任感。這樣，只要同意滿足第三方擔保人提供的標準，商家就既可以使用擔保人的認證技術，也可以和擔保人的認證程序進行綁定，在擔保人處獲得註冊並且允許在他們的網站上展示認證標誌和擔保印章。消費者可以披露在擔保人處驗證良好的商家以及與該商家有關的商業活動和歷史行爲。一些專家提出，對一個網絡零售商的信任是具體體現在消費者自願接受一項基於對電子零售商未來行爲有良好期望的在線交易之上。通過評估一方過去的行爲以及跟蹤其行爲，該方的未來行爲可以被預測並建立起對其的信任水平，這樣，消費者可以通過對網絡零售商的信任水平決定是否進行購買。本文中，可與目前電子商務系統合作的第三方擔保機構被派上用場。通過跟蹤網絡零售商的活動記錄，收集消費者的經歷和評論，該計算模型能夠評估消費者建立對不熟悉網絡零售商的信任水平。更多細節在第四節將被描述。
3 Chanllenges in Developing Chinese E-Commerce  中國發展電子商務的挑戰
Chinese E-Markets is undeniably of great potential.E-Markets are not only beneficail for national economy,but also for the global economy,especially since China has enterd the World Trade Organization(WTO).However,in terms of developing E-Commerce,there is a gap between China and other developed countries.The primary cause is that the advent of information age has a great impact on the economy of industrialized countries,while the socail environment and China hasn't become used to its coming.These can be noticed from various aspects including information infrastructure,barriers of social environment,degree of technology innovation,level of awareness,and trustworthiness and so on.Technically,the improvement is obvious,but it's difficult to catch up in short term for some social problems.
譯：中國的電子商務市場無可否認具有巨大潛力。電子商務市場不僅有利於國家經濟，也有利於全球經濟，尤其是自從中國加入世界貿易組織以來。但是，在電子商務的發展方面，中國與其它發達國家之間存在着很大的差距。原因主要是當信息時代的來臨對工業化國家的經濟產生巨大影響的時候，當時的社會環境卻使中國沒有習慣它的降臨。這可以從很多方面反映出來，包括信息基礎設施、社會環境的障礙、科技創新水平、意識水平和信任度等等。技術上，改善顯而易見，但是短期內很難在社會問題方面趕上其它發達國家。
3.1 Informationization Gap   信息化差距
Current social environment in China is yet to match the rapid informationization.The understanding of the relation and interaction between industrialization and informationization is inaduquate. In addition,the importance and urgency of informationization in social and economic development haven't been fully aprrecizted.Apart from that,for a long term progress,the awareness and acceptance to informationization are still underway both theoretically and practically.
譯：目前的中國的社會環境仍有待於改善以適應信息化的高速發展。對工業化的信息化的關係和互動認識還不夠。除此之外，信息化在社會和經濟發展中的重要和緊急性沒有被充分意識到。而且，信息化意識和接受度在理論和實踐上還處於發展當中。
Furthermore,the global information infrastructure are building up,China is not a exception.However,the popularity of informational and electronic facilities in China is still behind the USA,even though 70% of the growth in Internet users occurred in China.That is mainly due to the huge population of China and the imbalanced development of different regions.
譯：此外，全球信息系統正在建立，中國也不例外。但是，中國信息化和電子設施的普及仍落後於美國，甚至即使有70%的互聯網用戶增長率發生在中國，這也僅僅歸根於中國龐大的人口基數和不同地區之間的不平衡發展。
In terms of the innovation of information technology,China is catching up to the developed countries progressively,although the exploring and utiliazation of information resources and services are not yet adequate.
譯：說到信息技術的創新，中國正在積極趕超發達國家，雖然探索和利用信息資源和服務還不足夠。
3.2 Social Barriers in E-Commerce    譯：發展電子商務的社會壁壘
In China,E-Commerce activities are impeded by some social barriers as well.For instance,the law and regulation are not flawless.E-Commerce gives a full impetus to social and economic development;in the meantime,it raises some new problems.So we need to address the inadequacy of traditional policy and laws in the new circumstance,and recommend new and effective law and regulation sysytem.E-Commerce may cause multi-facet problems,such as legitimacy and authentication of E-Commerce,E-Commerce,and E-bill.Taxation is another problem.It includes how to collect business tax and custom;whether nre tax and collecting methods are needed for some intangible product(e.g. software,electrical audio and video);how to secure market and prevent monopoly,especially telecommunication monopoly;how to protect privacy and Intellectual Property(IP);how to manage and control export and import of intangible products,and so on.
譯：在中國，電子商務活動同樣被一些社會問題阻礙。例如，法律和規章並不完善。電子商務給社會和經濟發展帶來充足的動力；同時，它也產生一些新的問題。所以，我們需要關於處理在新的環境下傳統政策和法律的不足之處，並且建立新的更有效的法律和規章體系。電子商務可能引起多層次的問題，例如電子商務的合法性、電子合同、電子傾向。稅收是另一個問題，它包括如何收取營業稅和海關稅；是否需要對一些無形的產品（如軟件、電子音頻和視頻等）建立新的營業稅和收取方式；如何保證市場安全和標上壟斷，尤其是電信壟斷；如何保護隱私和版權；如何管理和控制無形商品的出口和進口，等等。
There is a lack of E-Commerce standard.Standardization and legislation is a difficult but important task in developing E-Commerce.For instance,before the E- Signature Standard was invented in China,there was no particular standard to normalize the behaviors on Internet, therfore,it could not setup a standard business environment compatible with international standards,which has a huge impact on integration of individual country and global economy.
譯：電子商務缺乏標準。制定標準和法規對發展電子商務而言是一個艱難但是重要的任務。例如，中國在電子簽名標準實施前，沒有一個專門的標準來規範網絡行爲，因此，不能建立一種標準的與國際標準兼容的商業環境，這種商業環境對經濟全球化具有重大的影響。
Another problem associated with E-Commerce is the social credit system and payment sysytem.The present E-Commerce can only be regarded as quasi-E- Commerce.Since the credit system lacks of trust,effective monitoring and payment mechanism.The Internet commodity transaction centers only fulfilled parts of E- Commerce processes,but by no mean to be full processes from pre-purchase to post-purchase.
譯：另外一個與電子商務相關的問題與社會信用體系和支付體系有關。目前的電子商務只能被視爲準電子商務，因爲信用體系缺乏信任、有效的監控和支付機制。因特網商務交易中心目前只能處理一部分電子商務過程，而決不能處理從電子商務從開始到完成之後的整個過程。
The current distribution sysytem for Chinses E-Commerce is still not satisfied enough.For instance,the delivery of products has yet to be separated from manufacturing and commercial enterprises.The incomplete distribution processing links such as warehousing,transporting and loading functions as independent entities so that the distribution problem has not been solved well at present.
譯：目前中國的電子商務配送系統仍然不能充分滿足需求。例如，商品的分發仍然與製造部門和銷售部門脫節。不完善的配送系統仍然對產品和銷售部門產生消極影響，由於對倉儲，運輸和裝載等功能作爲獨立的實體有着不同的關聯，因此配送問題目前並沒有很好的解決。
In summary,these informationization gaps and social barriers indeed hinder the development of Chinese E-Commerce,but many people consider lack of consumers trust in E-Commerce environment as the most concerned issues that affect the development in an individual country,since most traditional cues for assessing trust in physical world are not available on-line.
3.3 Trust Issue  譯：信任問題
Trust is a catalyst for human cooperation,and it has received considerable attention in the business and social science literature.Lack of trust can result in a waste of time and resources on protecting ourselves against possible harm and thereby clogs up the economy.Consumer's trust in an E-Retailer can be defined as consumers'willingness to accept vulnerability in an on-line transaction based on their positive expectations in regard with E-Retailers future behavior.Foctors that affect that trust in E-Commerce for consumers include security risks,private risks,and lack of reliability in E-Commerce processes in general.As pointed by Nielsen,real trust builds through a company's actual behavior towards its customers over time,and it is seen to be difficult to build and easy to lose.Theoratically,there are three trust-building process summarized in:
譯：信任是人們合作的催化劑，在商業和社會科學文獻中已經被人們廣泛注意。缺乏信用會導致由保護自己不受可能的傷害而產生的時間和資源的浪費。消費者對一個網絡零售商的信任是具體體現在消費者自願接受一項基於對電子零售商未來行爲有良好期望的在線交易之上。在一般的電子商務過程中，影響消費者對電子商務過程信任的因素包括安全風險、隱私風險以及可靠性的缺乏。正如尼爾森指出，真正的信任是通過公司長期對顧客的實際行動逐漸建立起來的，並且建立起來很難，失去卻很容易。理論上說，總結起來有三條建立信任的過程：
1. Knowledge-based trust is described as a form of trust that devolops over time as one party learns about intensions,capabilitys,and activity experiences.Example can be recommendation,evalustions,and reputation.
譯：1. 基於知識的信任是一種隨着時間推移的信任，在這個過程中，其中一方不斷學習有關的意圖、能力和活動經驗。這種例子有建議、評估和聲譽等。
2. Institutional-based trust relied on the creation of a "trust infrastructure",of socially recognized third-party intermediaries that certify the trustworthiness of paties in a commercial exchange or actually enforce trustworthy behaviors on the part of one or both partners.Such example is certificate,membership of association.
譯：2. 基於制度的信任依賴於“信任基礎設施”的建立，社會認可的第三方中介機構證明雙方在商業交換中的可信度，或實際上執行一個或兩個合作伙伴的信賴行爲的創建。這樣的例子如證書、協會會員。
3. Trust transfer happens when one party ascribes trustworthiness to an unfamiliar exchange partner based on that partner's association with a trusted party.
譯：3. 信任轉換髮生在合作伙伴和受信任方發生聯繫時，其中一方對不熟悉的交易夥伴給予信任。
In the ext section,we will describe a computational model,which can be used to facilitate the trust-building process in E-Commerce,particularly for Chinese E- Commerce market.
譯：在文本部分，我們會描述一種計算模型，它可以被用在電子商務建設過程中，尤其對於中國電子商務市場。
4. Computational Model of Trust.  譯：一個信用的計算模型
5. The Computational Model in E-Commerce Scenario.  譯：信用計算模型在電子商務中的運用
6. Trust Building in E-Commerce System EIComputer  譯：構建電子商務作用體系
7. Conclusion and Future Work   譯：結論和未來的工作
In this paper,we surveyed the E-Commerce activities currently under going in China.We have closely analyzed the gap between the informationization and Barriers of Chinese E-Commerce systems.Among the topics of facilitating development of a positive,effective and satisfied E-Commerce system,"trust" is major issue,which has not received adequate attention in past decades.We have proposed a consumers and merchants,and illustrate how to apply the model in a Chinese E-Commerce system. From the case study of EI Computer,we briefly talked about the implementation of E-Commerce systems with the consideration of enhancing trust.However,establishing trust must be a complex process,which involves more main objective we need to achieve in future work.
譯：在本文中，我們調查了中國目前正在開展的電子商務活動。我們仔細分析了信息化和中國電子商務系統的差距。在建立一個積極、有效和滿意的電子商務系統的主題上，信任是一個在過去一些年裏沒有受到充分重視的主要問題。我們提出了一種信任計算模型，它可以鞏固消費者和商家的信任關係，並且論述瞭如何應用這個模型於中國電子商務系統中。從對EI 計算機的研究安全中，我們簡要地談論了在鞏固信任度的考慮上如果實施電子商務系統。當然，建立信任是一個複雜的過程，需要包括更多的信息資源，所以持續的發展的鞏固信任度將會是我們在未來工作中需要追求的主要目標。