Trust – current thinking and future research

Abstract

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.

Temporal dynamics of trust in ongoing inter-organizational relationships

“…Moreover, as suggested by a number of scholars in inter-organizational studies, qualitative inquiries such as ours, have the potential to lay the groundwork to better understand and measure the role and the dynamics of trust in organizational buyer-supplier relationships (e.g. Arnott, 2007;Bunduchi, 2008;Rousseau et al, 1998;Seppanen et al, 2007). We believe that our findings can offer, "implications on the development of suitable metrics [to study] temporal dynamics and level of analysis in inter-organizational trust" (Seppanen et al, 2007, p. 261).…”

“…In addition, the other special issues and influential review articles listed above have called for alternative methods to better understand the complex nature of the role of trust in inter-organizational contexts. For example, in his introduction of the JEM special issue, Arnott (2007) called for "interpretivist approaches to the study of trust, what is in essence, an immeasurable entity" (p. 986), and after analyzing about 15 years of empiricalquantitative studies on trust, Seppanen et al (2007) pointed out the need for "qualitative empirical studies…for a concept that is apparently not easily quantifiable" (p. 261). Encouraged by these calls, in this paper, we review some of the recent works in business-to-business marketing, draw research questions from these studies, and through the use of interpretative research methodologies, provide some directions to the rather complex dynamics of inter-organizational relationships.…”

Measuring trust in supply chain partners' relationships

“…For example, online purchase requires trusting of the brand, the internet merchant and the information system over which the transaction occurs (Arnott, 2007) because the level of trust depends on the context in which it is invoked (Halliday, 2003). Therefore we argue that trust should be measured from various context dependent perspectives at multiple levels in relationship from trustor's perceptions and calculations.…”

International master franchise agreements

“…Trust relates to both capability to perform required tasks and to goodwill, the expectation that a firm will act in the best interest of the agreement and not behave opportunistically (Cullen et al, 2000;Dekker, 2004). Within the literature there is a continued debate as to whether trust acts as a substitute or complement for formal control as it emerges (Ring and Van de Ven, 1994;Das and Teng, 1998;Gulati, 1998;Dekker, 2004) and the need for further research is recognised (Arnott, 2007). Arino et al (2001: p111) suggest therefore that relational quality or 'the extent to which the partners feel comfortable and are willing to rely on trust in dealing with one another' is a more relevant construct.…”