Trust and standardization in the adoption of innovation

This tutorial article analyzes how standards can promote trust, which is an essential factor to drive the market acceptance of an innovation, including for the computer and communication industry. The nature of the trust in an innovation evolves significantly among the phases of the adoption as distinctive categories of adopters place different priorities on the three main elements of trust, which are the credibility, the integrity, and the benevolence of the innovation provider. The article explains how standardization effectively contributes to generate trust in an innovation in different manners along the various phases of the adoption cycle. We show how different types of standards, i.e. anticipatory, enabling, and responsive, help shape the relevant elements of trust for each category of innovation adopters. In conclusion, we discuss future avenues for the standardization of trust in order to manage it more effectively for the successful adoption of technology innovation