Trust in social computing. The case of peer-to-peer file sharing networks

Social computing and online communities are changing the fundamental way people share information and communicate with each other. Social computing focuses on how users may have more autonomy to express their ideas and participate in social exchanges in various ways, one of which may be peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing. Given the greater risk of opportunistic behavior by malicious or criminal communities in P2P networks, it is crucial to understand the factors that affect individual’s use of P2P file sharing software. In this paper, we develop and empirically test a research model that includes trust beliefs and perceived risks as two major antecedent beliefs to the usage intention. Six trust antecedents are assessed including knowledge-based trust, cognitive trust, and both organizational and peer-network factors of institutional trust. Our preliminary results show general support for the model and offer some important implications for software vendors in P2P sharing industry and regulatory bodies.