Title: Connective intelligence to stay safe while shopping online for e-products and e-services on business-2-business and business-2-consumer websites

Authors: Thembekile O. Mayayise; Isaac O. Osunmakinde

Addresses: School of Computing, College of Science, Engineering and Technology, University of South Africa, P.O. Box 392, Unisa 0003, Pretoria, South Africa ' School of Computing, College of Science, Engineering and Technology, University of South Africa, P.O. Box 392, Unisa 0003, Pretoria, South Africa

Abstract: Electronic commerce markets provide benefits for both buyers and sellers; however, there are risks involved. Various assurance models have attempted to mitigate online risks, but are limited when it comes to compliance. The aim of this study is to propose a connective intelligent model for safe online shopping called the page ranking analytical hierarchy process (PRAHP). PRAHP uses complementary techniques of the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and page ranking (PR) to evaluate the trustworthiness of web attributes. PRAHP assesses five important attributes from ten selected websites. PRAHP's paradigms were evaluated on business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) sites and validated by customer comments. The inbound links were adjusted to test their effect on PRAHP's reliability. 50%, 40% and 10% of the sites were found to be partially trustworthy, untrustworthy and fully trustworthy, respectively. Based on the results, the model is very reliable in providing customers guidance on purchasing decisions.

Keywords: e-commerce assurance; compliance; business-2-business; B2B; business-2-consumer; B2C; analytical hierarchy process; AHP; page ranking; security; trustworthiness.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIS.2019.098247

International Journal of Business Information Systems, 2019 Vol.30 No.3, pp.348 - 372

Received: 24 Feb 2017
Accepted: 23 Jul 2017
Published online: 07 Mar 2019 *

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