The importance of trust online: A study on building trust online for international workforce

Abstract: In the last few years, increasing attention has been given to an international “war of talent”, where nations, cities and companies are competing against each other in order to attract, recruit and retain international workforce. Today, Stockholm City is hosts an international city information website, thus making it a marketing investment targeting the aforementioned target group of international workforce, or expatriates. Previous studies show that the most crucial barrier to overcome in order to succeed on the online arena is the lack of trust from the visitor, regarding the sender’s integrity and competence to fulfill the offering presented. Treating this city informational website as any other e-vendor presenting an offering to a potential customer, this study’s purpose is thus to examine what factors influence expatriates’ feeling of trust towards a city’s informational website and through this, the view of the city itself. The study was carried out from the basis of previous research made on the subject of online trust and specifically through a case study of semi-structured interviews with a number of individuals from the expatriate target group. The findings revealed a number of attributes critical in determining expatriates’ trust towards a city informational website. An indication of time invested and thorough ground research of the target groups together with extensive information about the city and settling in are essential for the feeling of trust. Diverse image material backing up the written information is also important. Contact information in order to ask direct questions displays openness and adds to trust in the sender as well as a possibility of taking in former expatriates’ experiences through linked forums. One finding that was extra noteworthy was that a city website daring to present the city’s flaws is met with a higher overall trust than the one that is presenting a flawless city image.