The mediating effect of service provider expertise on the relationship between institutional trust, dispositional trust and trust in takaful services

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to investigate the relationship between institutional trust, dispositional trust and trust in takaful products with the mediating effect of service-provider expertise. Design/methodology/approach The data for this study were collected from 385 takaful policyholders from Lahore and Islamabad, Pakistan. The relationship is estimated with PLS-SEM using the bias-corrected bootstrapping method. Findings For paths 1 and 2, the results suggest a significant positive relationship between institutional trust, dispositional trust, service provider expertise and trust in takaful products. Results for the bias-corrected bootstrapping model revealed that service provider expertise mediates the relationship between intuitional trust, dispositional trust and trust in takaful products. Research limitations/implications Data were collected from provincial and federal capital cities of Pakistan where institutional setting is much much as compared to other cities Practical implications From the managerial perspective, the dispositional trust would help them in choosing appropriate marketing strategy, segmentation, new product development, targeting and positioning to increase penetration. At the same time, takaful companies need to improve their expertise, knowledge and information-sharing mechanism for fostering overall consumer perception of trust in takaful products. Social implications Insurance, conventional or Islamic, is meant to transfer risk to the third party. Regulators need to improve overall institutional factors because improvement will strengthen the trust level of the general public. Stringent institutional settings act as a sense of strong structural assurance and situational normality. A rise in trust level would induce people to purchase more policies and carry on risky investments that would ultimately result in higher economic growth. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no empirical study has been conducted to examine the impact of institutional and dispositional trust on trust in takaful products with the mediating effect of service provider expertise