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Towards the Design of Trustworthy Websites for Cultural Organisations: A Visitor's Perspective

This paper is available in a repository.
This paper is available in a repository.

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Preprint: policy unknown
Question mark in circle
Postprint: policy unknown
Question mark in circle
Published version: policy unknown

Abstract

Internet and the World Wide Web are increasingly playing an important role in facilitating communication in the cultural domain. Cultural institutions increasingly use the web in order to make their contents available on a more global scale thus broadening their audiences. In the online environment, trust emerges as a key asset for effective organizational communication. In this study, we assess the role of different factors that influence users' trust toward museum websites. We adopt an exploratory approach in the form of a survey, regarding visitor's choices in two small museums located on a Greek island. The results indicate that alongside technical considerations, perceived organizational reputation, a significant theme in management and marketing studies, as well as users' needs and gratifications, investigated in the field of media theory, constitute significant social predictors of online trust. The proposed model serves as an exploratory tool for small, cultural organizations that strive to improve visitors' trust toward their websites. By understanding the drivers influencing online trust, they will be able to provide more effective online experiences for their visitors and this is particularly important in the current environment of restricted funding.