Economic Trust Formation in Cashless Community Markets: Transaction Reliability, Merchant Familiarity, and Institutional Assurance

Marco Rossi

Economic Trust Formation in Cashless Community Markets: Transaction Reliability, Merchant Familiarity, and Institutional Assurance

Author(s)	Dr. Marco Rossi
Country	United States
Abstract	The transition from cash-based exchange to digitally mediated payment changes the institutional foundations on which routine community-market transactions depend. Cash provides immediate physical evidence of settlement, whereas cashless transactions require buyers and merchants to rely on payment platforms, network availability, authentication mechanisms, account records, transaction confirmations, and dispute-resolution systems. Economic trust consequently becomes a central condition for sustained cashless exchange. This study examines trust formation in cashless community markets through an integrated framework incorporating transaction reliability, perceived security, merchant familiarity, dispute-resolution confidence, and repeated successful payment experience. Because no original consumer or merchant dataset was supplied, the study is explicitly structured as simulation-based research rather than as completed empirical fieldwork. A synthetic dataset representing 400 hypothetical market participants was generated across four progressively stronger trust environments: low assurance, reliable payment only, reliable payment combined with merchant familiarity, and an integrated trust architecture incorporating technical, relational, and institutional assurance. The simulated mean economic-trust score rises from 3.21 under low assurance to 5.79 under the integrated condition. Reuse intention increases from 2.96 to 4.56, while modeled cash-fallback tendency falls from 0.62 to 0.19. Confidence in dispute resolution shows a similarly substantial increase. The findings support the proposition that dependable payment execution is necessary but insufficient for durable economic trust. Cashless community markets become more resilient when technical reliability is complemented by recognizable merchants, credible security, transparent transaction confirmation, and accessible recourse when payments fail. The article concludes that community-market digitization should be assessed through trust quality rather than transaction volume alone and provides a testable framework for future longitudinal and experimental research
Keywords	economic trust, cashless community markets, digital payments, mobile payments, merchant familiarity, transaction reliability, financial inclusion, institutional assurance
Field	Engineering
Published In	Volume 6, Issue 3, May-June 2025
Published On	2025-05-14

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Economic Trust Formation in Cashless Community Markets: Transaction Reliability, Merchant Familiarity, and Institutional Assurance

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