Understanding digital trust in insurance: foundations, origins, and relevance

Abstract

As digital transformation accelerates, digital trust emerges as a strategic imperative, particularly in the insurance industry, where stakeholder confidence and data sensitivity are central. Despite increasing academic interest, the concept of digital trust remains fragmented, lacking clarity and industry-specific frameworks. This short paper presents a foundational study on digital trust in insurance, synthesizing insights from a systematic literature review. The origins of digital trust were explored, its conceptual distinction from traditional trust, and the organizational elements it encompasses - governance, risk, compliance (GRC), corporate digital responsibility (CDR), and cybersecurity. The results show that digital trust is a multidimensional construct requiring both technical and ethical integration into business operations. This preliminary study serves as a foundation for developing a management-oriented framework tailored to the insurance sector, to be validated in follow-up research.