A Review of Literature on Trust in Online Platforms- A Conceptual Unified Framework and Future Research Directions

There has been a lot of empirical work on trust research in online platforms in the past two decades. Due to great diversity in the underlying theories, methodologies, variables, and relationships in this field and a “confusing potpourri” of conceptualizations and operationalizations of the constructs, prior researchers have called for a need to synthesize the field knowledge in a meaningful way to build a cumulative tradition. With this as the underlying motivation, this review paper analyzes 106 empirical articles on trust in online platforms published in the past 20 years to synthesize the field knowledge and provide a state of art picture of the field. This paper also aims to provide a conceptual unifying framework that establishes the relationships among various constructs studied in the literature, along with some insights into existing research gaps and potential future opportunities

Relationship marketing and client trust towards contractors within the large private building sector of the UK construction industry

A history of adversarial relationships, resulting in conflict between parties involved in building projects has raised levels of perceived risk for clients working with contractors. Therefore, traditional approaches to marketing management have been found to be inappropriate. The new development in relationship marketing may assist contractors in developing more appropriate marketing strategies. However, trust is essential to the development of positive on-going relationships and if future relationship marketing strategiesa re going to work, this must first be addressedW. ith calls for the development of trust, the thesis concentrateso n this, whilst taking into considerationt he complex exchangep rocessb etweenc lients and contractorse xisting over an extendedp eriod of time in any one project. This within what is calledt he TemporaryM ulti-organisation( TMO). From the client decision-maker's(C DNI) perspectivein the large private building sector of the UK construction industry, this thesis empirically examines client attitude and consequentiabl eliefs about, trusting contractors. It also examinesc ontractor behaviour affecting client willingness to trust them, whilst allowing for the influence other parties within the TMO have on CDM perspectiveo f the contractor. To do this, two models,t he 'ReasonedA ction Model' and 'Conditions of Trust InventorV were executed together through a carefully designedq uestionnaires urvey sent to key decision-makers'i n 590 leading large client organisationss uch as BAA, British Land, and major retail, hotel and leisure companies.D epth interviews with leading UK CDM's were used in conjunction with prescribedp racticet o aid in the designa nd contento f the questionnaire. Given the history of client-contractor relationships, results revealed some interesting findings. Third party influence from architects, colleagues within the CD"s firm, contractorsp ast clients and sub-contractorsw ere found to be the dominanti nfluenceo ver CDM trust of contractors. Results also show CDM's consider being able to trust contractors as important, reasonablea nd beneficial. This leads to fewer problemsw ith disclosureo f information, less monitoring of contractor performancei n terms of quality checksa nd greater likelihood of a successfupl roject. Also, all ten 'Conditions of Trust' relating to CDM's past experienceo f contractor behavioura re shown to be affecting the development of trust for future projects. The research makes an original contribution, providing insight into issues affecting client trust toward contractors during projects, whilst identifying areasf or action if trust is to be developed.I t also provides marketing theory with an insight into trust and relationshipm anagemenwt ith the TNIO, a forerunner to modem virtual organisations

Motivating customers to develop and maintain a relationship with pharmacists: an application of a Stages of Change Model

A consistent branch of research in health communication has been focused on the study of the pharmacist - patient relationship. In past decades, the pharmacist and his role in the health care setting has shifted from a product oriented approach, where the primary focus was the production and compound of medicines, to a more patient oriented approach, with main focus becoming the understanding and caring for clients and the problems they bring to their health care providers. As a consequence, research in the health communication field, with a focus on community pharmacy settings needs to examine strategies to get the pharmacist closer to the clients, developing a long – term relationship, and adopting a more patient- oriented information approach to move closer to the needs of the client. The main purpose of my doctoral thesis is to examine the pharmacist - client relationship focusing in particular on the attempt to integrate the Stages of Change Model (Prochaska and DiClemente, 1983), with two models currently in use to describe relationship development in the pharmacy context, in order to identify strategies that can support the pharmacists in building a relationship of loyalty with their clients in the future. I hypothesized that targeting health information according to the level of the relationship clients are in could produce the necessary loyalty to commit to the pharmacist and to enhance the long run acceptance and effectiveness of the health message. In particular, the empirical section is devoted to understanding how to produce the necessary loyalty that can lead to better future response for the therapeutic and health needs of the client. The hypothesis was tested in the context of Tessin pharmacist – client relationship by means of a three phase study: an explorative study, a descriptive study, and finally an intervention study. Using the data collected in the descriptive study, two models of relationship development were tested: one static and one dynamic. The static model treats the perceived relational benefits, relationship selling behaviours, perceived expertise and stages of change constructs as antecedents of trust. The dynamic model adds the Stages of Change moderating effect on perceived benefits, perceived expertise, perceived relationship selling behaviours, as antecedents of trust. In the dynamic model, trust is directly influenced by the perceived expertise of the pharmacist, relationship selling behaviours, and perceived relational benefits. The Stages of Change Model moderated the relationship between perceived relational benefits and trust, and approached significance in moderating the relationship between perceived expertise and trust. The moderated relationship influences the way to structure an intervention to increase client intention to frequent the pharmacy in the future: in particular, it suggests tailoring the message depending on the stage of the relationship. The analysis of the data shows that targeting health messages according to the level of client relationship (developmental stage/maintenance stage) and building the messages focusing on the variables most influential to the particular relationship stage should bring to a more “loyal client” in the future. Furthermore, results in the intervention study show that for people in the developmental stage, a targeted message, that is a message focused on relational benefits, was more effective than either no message, or a stage mismatched message

Purchasers’ perception of online business ethics: A case of (B2B) (SMEs) IT Firms in the North West, UK

The purpose of this study was to produce empirical research to examine the ethical concerns related to B2B (IT) in North West, UK. the Internet has fundamentally transformed the nature and the related businesses and customers maintain; while online purchasing Has experienced significant growth recently, customers worry frequently about the ethical issues of online increasingly. For retailers, internet usage has been a cause for concern and posed to be a challenge. Concerns of virtuous behaviour and security can derail customers from actively online purchasers’. To foster further growth, marketers must realize these critical ethical challenges in the online retailing environment and be cautious not to create dissatisfaction or distrust Most of the research was conceptual and limited in scope. In an online context, this study proposes and tests a conceptual model that will discover the relationships between online providers’ websites and ethical factors (e.g. privacy, security, fulfilment, non-deception, information quality, website credibility, and customer support) and customer satisfaction. It also explores the mediating role of trust and commitment on the link between PPSE and purchasers’ satisfaction. An empirical study was conducted to validate a proposed conceptual framework and test the research hypotheses. A quantitative methodology was applied using a hand delivered self-administered questionnaire as the data collection technique. Two hundred twenty-three (223) completed questionnaires were distributed randomly, a total of 193 questionnaires were returned. In this context based on the analysis of 180 valid questionnaires, targeting key businesses in information technology to SMEs (B2B) IT in North west, UK. Currently, there is no recorded contribution that focuses on the relationship between the purchaser’s perceptions of the seller’s ethics (PPSE) of the purchaser’s satisfaction Trust and commitment mediate. This gap in the literature is the main of the current thesis. Therefore, this thesis makes a novel contribution to the literature by providing empirical evidence regarding the potential impact of purchasers’ perception of sellers’ ethics and their satisfaction. To achieve this aim, the author has developed a conceptual framework that helps in the empirical examination of the relationship between these two concepts. This is considered significant due to the present contradictions in the literature regarding the incorporation of the purchasers’ perception of the seller’s ethics and its impact on their satisfaction Commitment and trust mediate the relationship between PPSE and satisfaction. A multivariate analysis was undertaken using the variance-based statistical technique known as Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling. The findings of this study have both theoretical and practical implications show significant support for the proposed conceptual framework. As predicted, purchase perceptions of seller’s ethics is a second-order construct with seven dimensions (i.e., privacy, non-deception, security, reliability, information quality, website credibility, and customer support) commitment and trust mediate the relationship between PPSE and satisfaction