Page 275 - Trust in ICT 2017

Trust in ICT 5

As a result, asymmetric information causes inevitable distrust in economic transaction for used car through
conflicting motivation. A buyer cannot trust in sellers’ word about the condition of the vehicle. While
consumers need a careful investigation in order to avoid purchasing defective vehicle, they are not
accustomed to investigate the car. Consequently, asymmetric information makes them fail to trust in sellers
and used cars, so level of satisfaction is always threatened. A great number of articles have shown that trust
is strongly related to satisfaction of various goods.
In summary, as seen in Figure III.10, the current used car transaction involves following inevitable problems;
(1) asymmetric information, (2) conflicting motivation of disclosing the condition of used car due to (1), and
(3) distrust among entities due to (2). Thus, an appropriate intervention is needed for avoiding dispute among
entities and activating the used car market.

Figure III.11 – High level illustration for used car transaction service

In order to overcome sequential problems discussed, it is direct remedy to make participants share
information. Trust information provider can play an important role in mediating entities who participate in
used vehicle market and sharing trustful data and information as shown in Figure III.11.

When a buyer request selling his/her car, a dealer registers that vehicle in an online market place liked to
trust service broker. Then, trust management platform automatically collects data from various sources such
as insurance company, public organization, social network services, and vehicle itself. If a vehicle owner
attaches an on-board diagnostics scanner, this device records and accumulates wide ranges of vehicle-
oriented information such as driving distance, recorded fuel efficiency, accident, driving habits, and
maintenance and repair history.

In the next step, by transforming these fragmented data into single information, trust management platform
identifies and evaluate the level of trust of an owner of used car, a registered vehicle, and a dealer. Based on
this refined and trustful information, a buyer can assure the condition of the used vehicle prior to purchasing
and make a purchase decision with comparably low level of uncertainty and risk.
III.5.2 Actors

As the participants in the used car transaction process depicted in Figure III.11 have different goals, each
actor plays a distinctive role and conducts different function.

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