A critical review of the ‘Online Dispute Resolution’ (ODR) Platform and its impacts with online consumer trust.

Abstract

The innovations in technology bring opportunities to innovate and expand its application in the lives of billions of people. However, it brings several challenges to the market and the judicial system. The enormous amount of new transactions made daily in cyberspace through e-commerce generate a huge potential of conflict between consumers and business that might go unaddressed if not looked closely. The authorities in the field have been adapting themselves to better accommodate the new reality. However, these efforts to improve the system depend to some extent on the built of trust. Trust is a complex phenomenon and it is essential to the effectiveness of such efforts as well as to the success of electronic commerce. The Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) Platform has been created and implemented with several aims; among them: Boost the market growth, increase trust in online consumption (especially cross-border), and assure easy access to justice. However, it is necessary to assess if these goals are being accomplished in order to keep proposing changes to adapt the dispute resolution tools. This study uses the awareness and perception of online consumers towards the ODR Platform and the online consuming habits to measure and investigate if the results on consumers reflect the target initially aimed with the platform implementation. This analysis will allow proving or disproving the theory of this research and assess the impact of the ODR Platform with online consumers.