Trust in Digital Services

Research Profile

Digital platforms are becoming increasingly important. As the world's leading business model, three of the five largest listed companies are based on a platform approach. Our research focus in this area is the analysis and design of digital platform ecosystems.

Online Trust & Reputation

Simply put, trust is the willingness to depend on others. It plays a special role in the context of digital platforms. We focus on investigating which elements or forms of presentation of an online platform create trust - both among customers and merchants.

Human-Computer Interaction

A look at today's digital landscape shows that the presence of computer agents in daily life has increased steadily over the last two decades. These computer agents interact with humans in different contexts. A better understanding of the specific interaction between humans and computer agents is therefore of utmost importance.

Inequality and Discrimination

Due to the limited visibility of personal characteristics, such as gender, nationality and age, on online platforms, interactions on these could be more egalitarian. However, similar discriminatory dynamics as in face-to-face encounters have also been observed in virtual environments. In our research, we investigate gender inequality, which is reflected, for example, in differences in wages or reviews on labor platforms.

Crowdfunding and Crowdsourcing

Crowdfunding is an Internet-based financing and investment instrument in which a large number of private individuals contribute to the financing of projects through individually small amounts. The possibility for users to see the actions of others gives rise to complex mechanisms, including so-called herd behavior. This and other social mechanisms within the crowd form our research focus in this area.

Digital Transformation in the Energy Sector

The energy industry is currently undergoing a fundamental transformation toward a climate-neutral system. Digitalization is a key driver of this metamorphosis. Our research focuses on the role of digital business models in this transformation and the design of digital user interfaces.

Digital Identity

A large share of interactions between people, companies, and organizations now takes place online. The identity of the actors plays a key role in establishing trust between people and platforms, and regulated services such as banking are subject to strict standards for establishing identity. We investigate the role of identity as a trust-building element in the digital space.

Cyber Security

Our research on cybersecurity involves the study of strategies and measures to protect organizations and end users of IT systems from digital attacks. Besides focusing on technologies and processes, it is essential to consider human factors, as deviant cybersecurity behavior frequently unlocks the gateway to serious security incidents.

Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) have become increasingly important tools to support human decision making in various domains. In an increasing number of applications, ML-trained algorithms are reaching levels of performance comparable to or exceeding that of humans. However, given this rapid progress in cognitive automation, the role of human decision makers is an often overlooked factor.