European Journal of Marketing

David C. Arnott

2007 European Journal of Marketing

doi: 10.1108/03090560710773291

Purpose – The primary purpose of this article is to introduce the special issue on trust in marketing and the selected papers. However, it has a secondary objective of acting as a brief introduction to the concept of trust, of highlighting the scope and scale of research into the concept in a range of disciplines, and of stimulating more research in areas identified as still being under‐explored. Design/methodology/approach – This is a discursive paper based on analysis and synthesis of trust literature and of submissions to the special issue. Findings – This paper finds that despite a broad spectrum of disciplines that investigate trust, and despite this special issue in the area of marketing, there are still areas open for research into trust in marketing, for example the role of trust in a B2C context, the impact of indirect (referent) experience versus direct experience of levels of trust, and exploring the concept using more interpretivist or phenomenological approaches. Research limitations/implications – The historical synthesis provides researchers new to the field with some foundational literature. For those interested in current thoughts, the discussion provides a synthesis of the areas represented by the paper in this special issue. For those interested in new areas it offers suggestions as to some possibilities. Originality/value – The value of the paper lies in linking the special issue articles to areas of current interest and the identification of under‐researched areas of trust in a marketing context.

Richard Elliott; Natalia Yannopoulou

2007 European Journal of Marketing

doi: 10.1108/03090560710773309

Purpose – The paper seeks to explore empirically the lived experience of trust in consumer brands and to develop a model focusing on functional and symbolic brands. Design/methodology/approach – The paper presents an exploratory, grounded theory approach and the study conducted in‐depth interviews. Findings – The findings reveal that when consumers are facing buying choices of functional brands that do not involve much risk and the price is low, familiarity is sufficient for their action. When risk and price levels increase, consumers seek a safe purchase choice regarding functional brands through confidence and dependability, while in the case of symbolic brands consumers have to trust the brand in order to make a purchase choice. Research limitations/implications – By exploring the concept of trust within the consumer domain and in particular in relation to functional and symbolic brands, this study offers insights into an area that has received noticeably limited research up to today. Furthermore the development of the psychosocial model of trust in brands offers opportunities to theoreticians for further research regarding the factors that influence trust in each stage, as well as ways to restore or transfer trust when needed. Practical implications – The study presents a tool to marketing practitioners, which will assist them in building and preserving long‐term trusting customer relationships. Originality/value – The value of our research lies in the development of a psychosocial model of trust in brands by drawing on both social theory and on the psychology of human relationships.

Christina Sichtmann

2007 European Journal of Marketing

doi: 10.1108/03090560710773318

Purpose – The paper aims to present a comprehensive framework for understanding consumer trust in a corporate brand, incorporating both the antecedents and consequences of trust. The paper also seeks to account explicitly for the differences in antecedents and consequences of trust found among customers and among non‐customers. Design/methodology/approach – Data were obtained from 308 face‐to‐face interviews conducted in Germany. Structural equation modelling was used in order to test the proposed hypotheses. Findings – The results indicate that competence and credibility have a high explanatory power as antecedents of trust. Trust has a considerable impact on supplier selection for existing and new products, as well as on the word‐of‐mouth (WOM) behaviour of consumers. There are strong differences between customers and non‐customers in terms of the antecedents and consequences of trust in a corporate brand. Research limitations/implications – In order to generalise the findings, the model needs to be tested with other samples and research objects. Marketing research into trust should focus on competence and credibility as important antecedents of trust. The findings propose that trust has positive effects on purchase intention and WOM behaviour. Marketing research should pay more attention to the role of trust in gaining new customers. Practical implications – Because of the positive influence on marketing success, managers should focus on trust‐building activities that centre on competence and credibility primarily with current customers. However, trust also seems to be a good device to gain customers from competitors. Originality/value – The contributions of the paper are, firstly, a more complete framework of trust that analyses both antecedents and consequences of trust simultaneously. Secondly, the study allows a direct comparison of the difference in antecedents and consequences of trust between customers on the one hand and non‐customers on the other.

Stefanos Mouzas; Stephan Henneberg; Peter Naudé

2007 European Journal of Marketing

doi: 10.1108/03090560710773327

Purpose – The aim of the paper is to define the role of trust and reliance in business relationships. Design/methodology/approach – After this paper identifies gaps in the literature, a conceptual model is developed, and its implications analyzed and discussed. Findings – One of the particularities of trust is its inherent anthropocentricity. As a concept, trust appears to be more applicable at the level of inter‐personal relationships than to inter‐organizational relationships. Business relationships involve both inter‐personal and inter‐organizational relationships. The paper considers a number of other possibilities and argues that there is a need to look at reliance as an incremental intellectual lens on business relationships. Research limitations/implications – Within a business‐to‐business marketing context, the paper discusses the impact of such a multi‐faceted conceptualization for research in business relationships. Practical implications – Marketing researchers often neglect the fact that relationships between organizations are based on mutual interests, and attempt to stretch the concept of trust towards inter‐organizational relationships without the necessary theoretical scrutiny. Originality/value – Applying the concept of trust to personal relationships and reliance to inter‐organizational relationships, the paper introduces a complementary, rational standard that contributes to the calculability in exchange relationships.

Sijun Wang; Lenard C. Huff

2007 European Journal of Marketing

doi: 10.1108/03090560710773336

Purpose – This study seeks to explain a buyer's response to a seller's violation of trust. Four negative responses (decline in trust, negative emotions, negative word‐of‐mouth (WOM) and reduction in repurchase intentions) and four explanatory variables (magnitude of violation, integrity versus capability‐based cause of failure, perceived likelihood of repeated violations and stage of trust prior to the violation) were identified. The study develops and tests hypotheses regarding the possible influence of the explanatory variables on each of the four negative responses. Design/methodology/approach – An experiment was conducted in which business professionals were given one of 16 scenarios, varied by levels of the four explanatory variables, describing a violation of trust in a business‐to‐business service situation. Respondents were asked questions regarding their probable response. Four‐way ANCOVA was used to analyze the results. Findings – The study finds that stage of trust and perceived likelihood of repeated violation had significant main effects on decline in trust, negative WOM and repurchase intentions. Integrity‐based attribution influenced decline in trust, but magnitude of violation had no main effects. Three significant interactions were found. Research limitations/implications – Findings show the importance of first impressions and reputation. Care should be taken to assure customers that violations will not be repeated. A major limitation was that scenarios cannot induce the same intensity of thought and emotion that real situations do. Originality/value – Despite extensive literature in service failure and recovery, this is perhaps the first study to rigorously examine and seek to explain a buyer's response to a seller's violation of trust.

Russel P.J. Kingshott; Anthony Pecotich

2007 European Journal of Marketing

doi: 10.1108/03090560710773345

Purpose – The nurturing of trust within firm‐customer relationships highlights the significance of social exchange theory in helping to explain the relational paradigm. By focusing upon this theory it was hypothesized that psychological contracts also play an important role in helping manage customer relationships. The principal purpose of this study is to explore the role of the psychological contract within the firm‐customer relationship, and its effects on trust. Design/methodology/approach – A sample of 343 distributor firms within the motorized vehicle industry was used to test a model developed on the basis of social exchange theory. Findings – Psychological contracts are perceptual in nature and encompass reciprocal obligations stemming from the relational marketing efforts between suppliers and distributors. This construct was shown to have a positive impact upon the level of trust and commitment within the relationship; however, perceived violations of the contract terms were found to reduce the distributor's level of trust. Originality/value – Given that trust was found to increase commitment, these findings have important managerial implications as they show that psychological contracts will erode important customer relationships if not factored into the customer decision‐making processes within the firm.

Louise Canning; Stuart Hanmer‐Lloyd

2007 European Journal of Marketing

doi: 10.1108/03090560710773354

Purpose – The paper aims to describe and develop the constructs of trust and adaptation in supplier‐customer relationships when associated with environmental (green) issues. Design/methodology/approach – The study is based on empirical data obtained from the perspective of both supplier and customer companies involved in dyadic exchange relationships, using qualitative methods of data collection and analysis. Findings – The paper uses an environmental context to show that, while having the potential to contribute to trust in dyadic relationships, adaptation can also undermine the trust that already exists between supplier and customer companies. Research limitations/implications – The findings are derived from two instances of successful environmental adaptation, one that resulted in failure and two that were ongoing. Both of the completed projects demonstrated little apparent difficulty, while the ongoing projects featured some conflict and frustration. These differences could be explained by the tendency to rationalise events after they have occurred, eliminating the “messiness” that is inherent in dealing with collaborative efforts that involve some risk and conflicting interests. Future empirical work could perform action research in which efforts to adapt are directly observed and are discussed both during and after attempts to bring about change. Practical implications – The paper provides recommendations of how environmental adaptations can be realised successfully even though changes might challenge the basis of an existing relationship and the trust that might already exist within it. These recommendations might equally be used to guide other forms of adaptation. Originality/value – The paper broadens understanding of trust and adaptation by looking at a management issue that is of growing importance in supplier‐customer relationships, namely the environmental impact of business activities.

Patricia M. Doney; James M. Barry; Russell Abratt

2007 European Journal of Marketing

doi: 10.1108/03090560710773363

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to specify and test factors surrounding trusting relationships between buyers and suppliers in a global, business‐to‐business services context. In so doing, the paper aims to help to extend relationship marketing theories to this under‐researched domain. Design/methodology/approach – A literature review and results of qualitative interviews in the paper provide a conceptual framework for the trust formation process and relational outcomes of trust. The research then tests a model of hypothesized relationships using structural equation modeling. Findings – The paper confirms the influence of trust building behaviors (social interaction, open communications, customer orientation) and service outcomes (technical, functional and economic quality) on trust formation. Trust is shown to have a positive influence on key relational outcomes, loyalty commitment and share of purchases. Research limitations/implications – The sample consists of buyers of aviation component repair services who may be susceptible to idiosyncratic industry pressures. Further, the sample of buyers in 42 countries includes a higher share of buyers from individualist countries. Practical implications – The study provides managerially relevant (“actionable”) results that may help buyers execute customer retention strategies that lead to higher customer profitability. Originality/value – This study adds to the limited literature on building trust in B2B services in a global context. The paper seeks to provide a balanced account of the interpersonal and tangible aspects of trust formation.

Graham R. Massey; Philip L. Dawes

2007 European Journal of Marketing

doi: 10.1108/03090560710773372

Purpose – The key objective of this research is to test how two trust dimensions (cognition‐based trust and affect‐based trust) mediate the effects of three personal characteristics (psychological distance, the marketing manager's sales experience, and the marketing manager's relative level of formal education) on the following outcome variables: dysfunctional conflict, functional conflict, and perceived relationship effectiveness. Design/methodology/approach – Drawing on the interaction approach, the paper develops a conceptual framework to better understand the nature of the working relationship between marketing managers and sales managers. In total, it develops and test 13 hypotheses. Partial least squares was used to assess the validity of the measures, and to estimate the structural model. Using a cross‐sectional design, data were collected from 101 marketing managers in Australia. Findings – The hypothesized model has high explanatory power and it was found that both trust dimensions strongly affected all three outcome variables. However, though both forms of trust were positively related to perceived relationship effectiveness, affect‐based trust had the strongest impact on this outcome. The results also confirm that both cognition‐ and affect‐based trust have negative effects on dysfunctional conflict, and strong positive effects on functional conflict. In addition to these new findings, the paper shows that while psychological distance has a strong negative impact on cognition‐based trust, it has no impact on affect‐based trust. Moreover, it was found that when marketing managers had greater levels of sales experience, it increased their affect‐based trust but it had no impact on cognition‐based trust. Finally, the marketing manager's relative level of formal education had no impact on either forms of trust. Originality/value – This is one of a handful of studies to employ a large‐scale empirical approach to examine the neglected cross‐functional relationship between marketing and sales. Also, it is one of the few studies to examine the effects of cognition‐based trust and affect‐based trust on performance outcomes.

Graham R. Massey; Elias Kyriazis

2007 European Journal of Marketing

doi: 10.1108/03090560710773381

Purpose – The primary objective of this research is to test a model examining interpersonal trust between marketing managers and R&D managers during new product development projects. Design/methodology/approach – In this study interpersonal trust as a bi‐dimensional construct with cognitive and affective components is conceptualised. The authors' integrative structural model specifies Weber's structural/bureaucratic dimensions – formalisation and centralisation to predict three communication dimensions, communication frequency, quality, and bi‐directionality. In turn these communication dimensions are used to predict cognition‐based trust, and affect‐based trust. In addition, the paper models the direct effects of the three communication dimensions on a dependent variable – perceived relationship effectiveness. The hypothesised model consists of 16 hypotheses, seven of which relate to the two focal interpersonal trust constructs. The measures were tested and a structural model estimated by using PLS. Data were provided by 184 R&D managers in Australia, reporting on their working relationship with a counterpart marketing manager during a recent product development project. Findings – The hypothesized model has high explanatory power and it was found that both trust dimensions strongly influenced the effectiveness of marketing/R&D relationships during new product development, with cognition‐based trust having the strongest impact. The results also reveal which forms of communication help to build interpersonal trust. The most powerful effect was from communication quality to cognition‐based trust. The next strongest effects were from bi‐directional communication, which was a strong predictor of affect‐based trust, and a somewhat weaker predictor of cognition‐based trust. Interestingly, the direct effects of our three communication behaviours on relationship effectiveness were modest, suggesting that their relationship building effects are largely indirect. Last, it is revealed that bureaucratic means of control on product development projects have mixed effects. As expected, centralisation reduces cross‐functional communication. In contrast, formalisation has a positive effect during product development, as it stimulates both the frequency and bi‐directionality of communication between marketing managers and R&D managers on these projects. Originality/value – This is the first study to treat interpersonal trust as the focal construct in marketing/R&D relationships during new product development. Moreover, it is the only study of marketing/R&D relationships to conceptualise, measure, and model two underlying dimensions of interpersonal trust (cognition‐based trust, and affect‐based trust). Our study also integrates aspects of Weber's theory of bureaucracy, with interaction theory, and demonstrates the strong links between these theoretical frameworks.

Avinandan Mukherjee; Prithwiraj Nath

2007 European Journal of Marketing

doi: 10.1108/03090560710773390

Purpose – Trust and commitment are the central tenets in building successful long‐term relationships in the online retailing context. In the absence of physical interaction between the buyer and the seller, how websites can gain the trust of the buyers and deliver on the promises made have become central issues in online customer relationship management. This paper aims to re‐examine the commitment‐trust theory (CTT) of relationship marketing in the online retailing context. It seeks to theorize the antecedents and consequences of commitment and trust in the online context and identify how CTT can be adapted in a digitized business environment. Design/methodology/approach – Modified constructs and their measures are developed to understand the antecedents and the outcomes of commitment and trust. Survey data from British online customers ( n =651) are used to test CTT hypotheses with structural equation modelling. Findings – The study suggests a significant modification to the traditional CTT model in the online environment. Privacy and security features of the website along with shared values are the key antecedents of trust, which in turn positively influences relationship commitment. Behavioural intentions of customers are consequences of both trust and commitment. The relationship termination cost has a negative impact on customer commitment. Research limitations/implications – The paper identifies interesting differences between the original work by Morgan and Hunt and the findings presented, but basically concludes that the commitment‐trust theory applies to online retailing. Originality/value – Contributions of this study in re‐examining the CTT model of relationship marketing in an online context are manifold. This paper proposes a modified model to understand the role of consumer trust and commitment in a digitized environment. The modified constructs and measures truly reflect the dynamism of online business. The extended CTT model can provide better insight into managing customer relationships in online retailing.

David C. Arnott

2007 European Journal of Marketing

doi: 10.1108/03090560710773408

Purpose – The primary purpose of this bibliography is to provide a compilation of trust‐related articles from the disparate fields in which trust has been explored (from psychology to sociology and information systems to marketing. Years in its compilation and (still incomplete), it provides a listing that is not easily obtained even with the search capability of the internet and electronic library catalogues. Its secondary purpose is to highlight which articles are used most by marketing‐related trust researchers both in general and within the submissions to the special issue. Design/methodology/approach – The bibliography was compiled via search and analysis of databases, reference lists, bibliographies, internet searches, library catalogues, university web pages, researchers' curricula vitae ( inter alia ) for conference papers, journal articles, and books that use trust as a key concept within the work. Findings – The paper finds that there is a plethora of material on trust, but spread across several thousand sources. No single comprehensive collection exists and the need for such a compilation is of value to researchers. Research limitations/implications – The paper is an invaluable source of references on trust from across a wide range of academic disciplines. Originality/value – The main contribution of the paper is the cross‐disciplinary nature of the compilation of reference materials.