The Importance of Digital Signature in Sustainable Businesses: A Scale Development Study

Abstract

Today, the interest and the needs of all sectors for digital signatures are increasing day by day. The next approvals in businesses cannot take place without the previous approvals, which follow one after the other, such as a chain of transactions. For this reason, the approval (that is, the signature of a relevant unit) should be carried out as soon as a document is received and immediately forwarded to the next unit. Digital signatures are needed to carry out business transactions quickly and reliably. The use of digital platforms and systems, which are indispensable parts of digital transformation, can be achieved primarily with awareness and understanding of their importance. However, a digital signature awareness scale was not found in the literature. Therefore, in this study, a new scale was developed which can be used to determine the digital signature awareness of people and it is hoped to eliminate this deficiency in the current literature. The developed scale consists of two dimensions: awareness and benefits. The study was designed as descriptive research and 567 participants voluntarily participated in the study. Factor analysis and descriptive analysis methods were used to analyze the collected data. In line with the statistical analysis results, it has been observed that the developed scale provides validity and reliability features and is qualified to be used in scientific research to determine the awareness of people about digital signatures. With the digital signature scale, which is thought to fill the gap in the literature, it is hoped that the digital signatures awareness of people in developing countries, and in particular in Cyprus will be determined, and it is also hoped that people will be encouraged to use digital signatures after necessary training.