Trust, Identity, Trusted Systems Minitrack

Trust is a pervasive concern not just with new technologies but also with established technologies as they become more complex and interdependent. How do new advancements in both hardware and software technologies change the way we think of trust in technology, interpersonal trust, trust in organizations, and trust in collectives, and how do these different trust forms interact? What are the risks and vulnerabilities with the emerging algorithmic capabilities or highly distributed peer-to-peer systems (e.g., financial peer-to-peer systems, cryptocurrencies)? What are the implications for trust as technologies take on capabilities with both social and moral agency? Technology responds to our actions and talks back to us and is associated with provisional and consequential actions. As systems become more human like, they might exacerbate rather than compensate weaknesses common in trust assessments among humans. Some technologies are argued to even replace the trust we now have in institutions as trust shifts from humans and central organizations to computers and anonymous decentralized organizations that have no geographic boundaries.

This minitrack explores when and to what degree trust matters, in what form(s), and with which consequences. We welcome papers that theoretically or empirically advance our understanding of trust in organizational, inter-organizational, network, and collective contexts. Papers can use any acceptable methodology and theory. We welcome papers at any level of analysis and encourage papers that take a cross-level and/or inter-disciplinary perspective. Some possible topic areas include but are not limited to the following:

• Understanding issues of trust and reputation in the context of sharing economy organizations, e.g., in the platform, among the users of the platform, in the organization behind the platform, in financial transactions conducted through the platform.
• Understanding the relationship between an organization’s handling of its users’ data, e.g., privacy/integrity, use of the cloud, and trust in the organization.
• Understanding the relationship between trust in an organization and trust in the organization’s technology-based offerings.
• Understanding how regulation and policy at the national and international levels influences issues of trust and the penetration of technology, e.g., in the financial industry and the sharing economy, and vice versa.
• Understanding the role of trust between users and emerging technologies, e.g., personal robots, smart toys, wearables, 3D printing, self-driving cars and buses, drones.
• Understanding the role of trust in the development of algorithms, e.g., functions, openness of coding, data collection.
• Understanding the activities and narratives that startup organizations in emerging high-technology industries use to build trust and legitimacy in the industry, e.g., users/consumers, incumbents, regulators.
• Understanding the relationship between trust and business models in startup and emerging industries as well as in the commercialization of new technologies by established firms.
• Understanding the relationship between trust and the development and dynamics of self-regulated, decentralized, peer-to-peer networks.
• Understanding the relationships among trust, technology affordances, and institutional logics.
• Understanding the relationship between national culture and institutions and trust in technology and digital environments that know no geographic boundaries.
• Understanding the relationship between trust and control in digital environments.
• Understanding how trust is built, maintained, and repaired when the context is continuously changing

Minitrack Co-Chairs:

Sirkka Jarvenpaa (Primary Contact)
University of Texas at Austin
Email: Sirkka.jarvenpaa@mccombs.utexas.edu

Robin Teigland
Stockholm School of Economics
Email: robin.teigland@hhs.se