Platform Governance, Institutional Distance, and Seller Trust in Cross-Border E-Commerce

Trust from sellers is essential for the success of cross-border e-commerce (CBEC) platforms, and effective platform governance plays a crucial role in shaping and maintaining this trust. However, institutional distance can lead to deviations in sellers' understanding and implementation of platform governance mechanisms, posing a threat to the establishment of trust relationships. Research on the impact of platform governance mechanisms on trust from the seller's perspective is still relatively limited. Therefore, we aim to investigate the mechanisms through which formal governance mechanisms (normative, supervisory, and reward-punishment mechanisms) and relational governance mechanisms (community building) influence seller trust, and we examine the moderating effect of institutional distance. Through empirical analysis of 391 valid questionnaires, our results show that normative mechanisms and community building enhance seller trust by reducing their perceived risks, while the supervisory mechanism and reward-punishment mechanism directly affect seller-perceived risks and platform trust. Institutional distance negatively moderates the governance effectiveness of these mechanisms. Our findings offer significant theoretical contributions by advancing the understanding of seller behavior, extending platform governance and trust theory in CBEC research field, and enriching institutional distance frameworks, while providing practical insights for platforms to optimize governance mechanisms to foster seller trust.