thProceedings of the 15 International Conference
on Automation & Computing, University of
Bedfordshire, Luton, UK, 19 September 2009

A peer-to-peer trust modeling analysis for
decreasing B2B monitoring costs
Pinthusorn Pasanajano, Nik Bessis, Yong Yue, Marc Conrad and Antony Brown
Institute for Research in Applicable Computing
University of Bedfordshire
Luton, UK[Pinthusorn.Pasanajano | Nik.Bessis | Yong.Yue | Marc.Conrad | Antony.Brown]@beds.ac.uk
Abstract—In businesses, uncertainties and risks occur all thetime. Uncertainties may come from customer’s demand,
consumer purchase. Risks can come from competitor
company, transport products. These can cause costs ofswitching and transaction. Trust can decrease transaction
and switching costs. Moreover trust can increase profits too.
Most business concern these trust management cause
exchangeable
information
betweeninternet
andcommunication network. Grid technology is a service forsharing that information and solving problems incommercial enterprise. Grid environment is a distributed
computing to perform very large tasks by using access
control including policies, certificates, and private keys. In
businesses, there is a need to share resources such as filesharing, document sharing, and so on. Peer-to-peer system
is an appropriate architecture for these sharing in trust
management affecting the performance of profit. This paper
is to study appropriate models and technologies to decrease
costs for Business to Business (B2B). Moreover they assure
security techniques such as cryptographic for privacy
retrievable information. They can share information for
reducing uncertainties demand and increase duration whenthe quantities of orders are high. Because they can be
occurred all time. The experiment of comparative studies
with grid, peer-to-peer and social networks are
methodologies for decrease costs.
Keywords-B2B; trust; total costs; grid technology; peer-topeer; social networkI.
INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, Business to Business (B2B) uses electroniccommerce to buy and sell products and services. These are
the convenient ways that companies can support
customers. The companies can increase efficiency oftransactions among companies that have business relations[12]. There are many uncertainties and risks whenbusinesses use online methods for their transactions [1]. In
turn, a number of techniques have been developed toalleviate these concerns. For example, security such as
cryptography for privacy retrievable information, digital
signatures, authentication for authority and access control
are some of these techniques [18]. Businesses can share
information for reducing uncertainties demand andincrease the duration when the quantities of orders arehigh [22]. Other than sharing information, it means
resource sharing for managing complex processes in a
distributed network [10]. There are some types of total
costs in business (see Section II). Costs will be decreased

by trust (see Section III) and technologies (see SectionIV).
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
If businesses share more information the total costs
will decrease. It means that information sharing reduces
uncertainties demand in business [17]. Costs dejectcustomers from products or services that include time,effort and customer’s knowledge. They are calledcustomer switching costs [15].
A.

Switching costs
Switching costs have three types of disciplines:
strategy, economics and marketing. For strategy,
switching costs have two kinds of work: competitive
strategy and competitive advantage. Competitive strategy
means managers have to conceive about threat of entry,
supplier power, buyer power, substitutes and rivalry.
When they understand them, they will bring business toachieve competitive advantage [28]. For economics,
switching costs mean unwillingness of customers toswitch suppliers and help to describe appearance ofbusiness [19]. For marketing, switching costs mean
relationship between businesses and customers.
Relationship has made businesses be attracted and retain
customers [20]. There are three types of switching costs inmarket consumers. Firstly, previous investment meanstransaction costs that consumer switch services and goods
between different suppliers in the same brands. Secondly,
potential investment means learning costs that consumers
use one brand for a long time but sometimes they may
transfer to use the other brand of the same product. Lastly,
opportunity costs mean artificial or contractual switchingcosts that a business can retain customers by signing acontact with business [19].
B. Transaction costs
There are four types of transaction costs: Firstly,
search costs include the costs of locating and evaluating
trading partners. Secondly, contracting costs include thecosts of writing and negotiating for an acceptableagreement. Thirdly, monitoring costs refer to the costs ofmonitoring the agreement of obligations. Lastly,
enforcement costs refer to ex post bargaining andempower trading partners [31]. Business can decreaseswitching costs and transaction costs by increasing theflow of information with its network partners. Trust cansolve these problems and to reach the benefits of market.

III. TRUST
Trust is considered as a good predictor that can reduce
uncertainties in an organization. Trust decreases
transaction costs between businesses [24]. The author’s
representation to depict trust in B2B is shown in Figure 1.

experiencearesharedandtransaction/switching costs involved.

thus

the

less

B. Trust management
There are two types for managing trust in business.
Firstly, policy-based trust management concerns
distributed services architectures that explain the problemof license and access control in system. Policy-based canbe used with strong protection in complex rules that it ischanged easily. Policy-based must be used with grid, thiswill be explained in the next Section.
Secondly, reputation-based trust management involves
electronic commerce system. It will manage trust in publickey certificates. Reputation-based is used with boundaryof information in network systems. Then it will appear
available information that it is based on experiences andthe comment of users. Reputation-based must be usedwith peer-to-peer systems. Thus, the following section
provides an overview of related information technologies
for business to business interactions.
IV.

In economic view, trust has two functions: (1)decrease transaction costs for modifying condition in themarket, (2) amend information sharing to maximize
efficiencies [9]. Trust may decrease transaction costs inthis way. If trust transactions are high, they will use lesstime for contracting costs. It means that they assure equal
payoffs [8].
A. Hypotheses related to trust
There are three related hypotheses for trust emerging
from literature review.
Hypothesis 1: If the supplier trust the buyer theexchange partners will decrease contracting costs [33].
So, the greater the trust, the less before transaction
costs occur.
Hypothesis 2: The supplier certainly shares more
information to the buyer if the supplier trusts the buyer[4].
So, the greater the trust, the more valuable informationis shared.
Hypothesis 3: If trust can reduce transaction costs not
only it will reduce the total costs but also it will maximize
profit performance [16].
So, the greater the trust, the more the profit.
Based on these, it can be argued that it is the aim of
this research to pursue the following hypothesis:
Customers can share their experience by using trust. “The
more valuable information about trusting the company
shared by customers, the more likelihood potential
customers of the company.”
In turn, the aim of this research study is to identify
whether the greater the trust, the more customer’s

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES FOR BUSINESS TO
BUSINESS (B2B)

Business to business (B2B) plays a high performancerole in the world economy. Many companies exchange
information via the internet and communication
technology networks [3]. Distributed systems involve
technology that they could make decision by themselves[29]. Distributed systems concern grid computing
architectures. These enable resource sharing from one
node to another node that is available from a network [11].
Several nodes can use the same services and cometogether to process complex transactions based on thetrust of the nodes [14]. In business, a product can beadvertised in the form of texts and banners via social
network [7]. Social networking is a methodology studying
the relationships between nodes in a network [27].
A. Emerging technologies
The grid technology or grid environment is a service
for sharing computer power and data storage capacity overthe internet [6]. Grid environment offers many advantages
over other information and communication technologies[13]. Grid technology is an emerging technology that uses
the power of CPU cycles and data processing fromdisperse networks to a distinct network [30]. Grid
computing is distributed computing to perform very largetasks. This technology has been applied to intensive
scientific, mathematical, and academic problems and it isused in commercial enterprises for diverse applications[5].
Grid accesses resources and services include
documents, accounts, and other data over the internet byusing an access control system such as policies andcertificates [23]. Businesses admit trust by revealing for
certificates such as one business can prove the otherbusiness through digital certificates. When businesses use
trust, they need to understand about access control. It
means that grid can be satisfied set of digital certificates[21].

The method that client and server are followed
equally. They are called peer-to-peer architecture. Peer-topeer includes files sharing, online auction, and supply
chain network [32]. Trust model concerns the factors ofrisk and it has high performance when it is supported by apeer-to-peer system. Trust management need to keep data
in efficiently storage via a peer-to-peer network and canaccess data all time [25]. Peer-to-peer communities can be
executed on top of peer-to-peer network such as Gnutella.
Grid technology, peer-to-peer system are attended unicast
communication on network address. This address isallowed to use bandwidth, fault-tolerance and network
dependence. Communication network reliability depends
on the sustainability of both hardware and software. Faulttolerance is used to how reliable particular component of
network. Bandwidth and fault-tolerance usually work
together. There are two basic techniques for informationand maintenance. If fault-tolerance decrease bandwidth
will be decreased too. It is called hard-state registration.
On the other hand, if fault-tolerance increase bandwidth
will be increased too. It is called soft-state [2].
There are two properties of networks: Firstly, think
about degree correlations. Social networks are positive but
the most other networks are negative. Secondly, think
about clustering network. Cluster in social networks are
greater than expectance by risk [26]. Social networks offer
services for finding friends like MySpace, Orkut andFriendster, for sharing photos like Flickr, for sharing
videos like YouTube and Google Video, and for writing
blogs like Live Journal and Blog Spot.
B. Discussion
Uncertainties and risks are caused total costs inbusiness. Total costs include switching and transaction
costs. Trust can decrease these costs [4, 9, 16, 24, 33].
Moreover trust can increase profit too [8, 16]. Likely
person believes in someone that they can avoid risky
relationship. When using trust in business, they can share
information via communication technologies. There are
two types for managing trust policy-based and reputationbased trust management. In addition social network can beworked with trust such as accessing personal information,filtering data, and incorporating email client. Most
business concern these trust management cause
exchangeable information between internet andcommunication network.
Grid technology is a service for sharing that
information and solving problems in commercial
enterprise. Grid environment is a distributed computing toperform very large tasks by using access control including
policies, certificates, and private keys. In businesses, there
is a need to share resources such as file sharing, document
sharing, and so on. Peer-to-peer system is an appropriatearchitecture for these sharing in trust management
affecting the performance of profit.
V. THE PROPOSED RESEARCHThis research interest is to provide appropriate models
and technologies to decrease costs for B2B. This isbecause businesses using online methods for buying andselling involve uncertainties and risks. Moreover they

assure security techniques such as cryptographic forprivacy retrievable information. They can share
information for reducing uncertainties demand andincrease duration when the quantities of orders are high.
They are called transaction costs. They are parts ofswitching costs in market consumers. These costs include
customers’ time, effort, and knowledge that they invest in
products, services, or relationships. So the less oftransaction costs mean the less of search costs, the less ofcontracting costs, the less of monitoring costs, the less ofenforcement costs. But monitoring costs are higher costs
when they compare with the other costs [8, 31]. Because
they can be occurred all time. Trust model can decreasetransaction costs. If this research will reduce costs fromtransaction costs by enabling trust it can say that the moretrust the less costs in terms of the specific transaction
costs. If this research develops trust model will lead tolower costs in term of monitoring costs. The experimentof comparative studies with emerging technologies will be
the approach for this research.
VI.

OBJECTIVES

A. To investigate current trust models forB2B withparticular regard to monitoring costs.
A state-of-the-art literature review of trust models andmonitoring costs in B2B will be offered. To investigate
and understand problems of B2B with costs. To inspect
total costs including switching and transaction costs inbusiness. Both switching and transaction costs don’t havefeedbacks filters of transaction. Buyers are risk about
incomplete and misrepresent information from sellers. So
they need to be used trust model to solve these problems[1, 8, 9, 12,15, 18, 20, 24].
B. To identify technology behind those relevant trustmodels.
To perform a literature review about technology fortrust management. This will specify suitable and usefultechnology, how trust can manage that problem. Trustmodels mean decentralized trust data management andtrust operation. These involve online connections. Whenbusiness use online connections they can share
information too. Some hypotheses can be stated that the
supplier certainly share more information to the buyer if
the supplier trusts the buyer [3, 10, 11, 18, 22, 29].
C.

To investigate comparative studies with emerging
technologies.
This will focus in the use of comparative studies withappropriate emerging technologies such as gridtechnology, peer-to-peer technologies and social
networks. These technologies can be comparatively
studied under three testing criteria that include bandwidth
requirement, fault-tolerance and network dependence.
These technologies can be used for doing trade between
people that create market from them. Businesses can use
these technologies for maximizing the profit [2, 6, 7, 10,
13, 14, 26, 27, 32].

D. To develop a trust model for decreasing B2B costs.
To understand and solve problem of costs bydeveloping a trust model. Trust will help and clarify theiterative process. Trust has many dimensions; for instance,
economics, marketing, and psychology. Moreover trustmodels can be explained that how they can decrease thetotal costs in B2B. This process is to design models thatinvolve grid technology and peer-to-peer systems. To
create and modify rule for test models [9, 21, 23, 24, 25].
E. To undertake model evaluation and test it as tovalidate the hypothesis.
To test model and validate hypothesis. This process
will refine the development of validation hypothesis.
From previous process, this process will test rule ofhypothesis. To modify boundary for appropriate
environments. To analyse and implement result. The
evaluation procedure use for peer-to-peer trust model [4,16, 33].
VII. CONCLUSION
This research identified two types of costs that occur
in business. They include switching costs and transaction
costs. Companies can reduce these costs by using trust.
This research develops trust model for leading lower costsin term of monitoring costs. Trust support three emerging
technologies. Firstly, grid accesses resources and services
over communication technologies. Secondly, peer-to-peer
system is the method that client and server can share
information. Lastly, social networks suggest services in
network. This research tests these technologies withcomparative studies that include bandwidth requirement,
fault-tolerance and network dependence.
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