Buyer Trust Research Articles

Current state and development prospects of Ukraine’s food industry

The food industry is one of the most important industries for the country's economy and is able to ensure the competitiveness of Ukrainian food products on the international market. The purpose of the paper is to research current state and development prospective of the state of the food industry in Ukraine. The study has brought the following results. It was determined that the food industry occupies the first place in terms of the volume of products sold, on a par with metallurgical production. After analyzing the dynamics of production volumes, it was determined that the food industry provides high rates of production growth, but a decline in production is observed for certain types of products, namely, butter, margarine, sauces, flour, bakery and pasta products. It was determined that the main share of the market belongs to large manufacturers who have a developed sales network and offer consumers a wide range of products. It was determined that the level of profitability of food industry enterprises is low, in recent years there has been a negative trend of the anticipatory growth of production costs over the rate of profit growth. In modern conditions, in addition to the traditional factors that destabilize the development of the food industry, challenges caused by the consequences of the pandemic were added, and later, domestic enterprises faced new problems due to the war. Russia's invasion of Ukraine led to the suspension of some food industry enterprises due to hostilities. The stoppage of Ukrainian exports after the beginning of the conflict pushed up the food price index. A promising direction for the development of the food industry of domestic enterprises is adapted to modern conditions, expansion and search for new sales markets, as well as improvement of product quality. The food industry has a great impact on the country's economy and the volume of revenues for the budgets of various levels. Given the high saturation of the market, manufacturers of food products must win the trust of buyers and fight for the consumer's choice. Therefore, the main task for domestic enterprises is to determine new directions, means and stages of implementation of the foreign economic strategy, with the aim of optimizing the activities of enterprises.

Trust Asymmetry and Changes in Supplier Performance: An Institutional View

Despite the long recognition of the dyadic nature of interfirm trust, prior studies have not examined how trust asymmetry affects relationship outcomes. This study examines trust asymmetry in buyer-supplier exchanges from a dyadic perspective, predicting that when buyer trust is greater than supplier trust, trust asymmetry leads to a decrease in supplier performance over time. However, when suppliers trust more than buyers, the prediction is that trust asymmetry results in an increase in supplier performance. The study further incorporates an institutional view to examine the moderating roles of legal support and regulatory uncertainty. An analysis of a two-wave survey of 229 buyer-supplier dyads provides support for the effects of trust asymmetry. Moreover, legal support weakens the negative impact of buyer trust asymmetry and the positive role of supplier trust asymmetry, while regulatory uncertainty magnifies the influence of buyer trust asymmetry. These findings provide fresh insights into the dyadic nature of trusting relationships and offer important implications for trust research and for better management of firm exchange relationships.

Laws relating to trade mark infringement in India

The brand label is one of the framework benefits. Authorized creativity rights allow persons to retain ownership of their original goods and creative activity. Because classified invention became known via the capacity of people labor, it is limited by different enrolling and despotism fees. There are several types of intellectual property such as Trademarks, Copyright Act, Patent Act, and Designs Act. A brand is a label, phrase, or symbol that distinguishes an item from those of other firms. The system's promotion of labor and goods is more simpler with a name, since the item's identification with the label is assured and easy. The owner is entitled to restrict other participant from using his or her trademark or symbol.The law of unfair commerce has often served as a guiding principle in conflict resolution. The main technique was the general public's desire not to be duped. Furthermore, the benefit to the injured person of not receiving their compensation for all their mistreated work and effort should not be overlooked. Nevertheless, there is also the method of strengthening competitiveness for the welfare of the majority. Trademark law is based on solutions to property rights, financial expediency, buyer trust, and broad concepts of justice.

Experts, trust and competition

This paper provides a theoretical and experimental analysis of trust formation in markets with expert sellers and repeated interaction. Buyers are able to observe ex post whether the quality of a product was sufficient. This allows them to assess an expert’s trustworthiness by not following a high-quality product recommendation. We show that in the presence of a monopolistic seller, infinitely repeated interaction is not enough to induce buyer trust formation. However, with competing sellers, recommendations are partially informative and buyers trust recommendations with some probability. More intense competition in the form of second opinions further increases trustworthiness and trust. The experimental analysis supports the theoretical predictions regarding the effect of repeated interaction and competition on trust formation.

Determinants of groundnut producers’ market channel choice in Western Oromia region, Ethiopia

Lack of adequate number of groundnut farmers' market channels remain long lasting problems in the study area. However, the choice of an appropriate market channel enables farmers to get reasonable profits from groundnut production. This study aimed to identify the existing groundnut market channels and to analyze determinants of channel choice decisions of smallholder groundnut producers in Western Oromia. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 400 sample household heads. Primary data were collected using a pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire and through key informant interviews using checklists. Multivariate probit (MVP) model was used to analyze determinants of groundnut market channel choices. The model resulted from that level of education, distance from the nearest market, access to market information, cooperative membership, trust in buyers, access to credit, the quantity of groundnut sold, own transport facilities, and access to off/non-farm income affected the probability of households in combination to select collector, wholesaler, retailer, and consumer market channels at different significance levels. The findings of the study suggest that there is a need for all concerned bodies like government to create market linkage between farmers and buyers, provide improved seed and other production inputs while farmers should maximize quantity of groundnut produced through accessing improved seed and other production inputs and market related development bodies should help in organizing farmers’ groundnut cooperatives. Similarly, strengthening micro financial institution to provide credit for groundnut producers is the area where interventions required.

Comments: How Real Are Carbon Offsets?

Purchasing carbon offsets is a widespread means of attempting to meet carbon-reduction and net-zero emissions goals across many industries. Also widespread is the increasing scrutiny of the practice. How “real” are the offsets? How are they quantified and verified, and by whom? Purchasing carbon offsets, or carbon credits, is an option when a company’s efforts to eliminate its carbon emissions through mitigation methods fall short. The offsets are purchased through investments in projects that remove carbon from the atmosphere such as nature-based solutions (e.g., REDD, or reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation), negative-emission technologies (including carbon capture and storage [CCS] and bioenergy with CCS), and renewable energy. Here’s where the criticism arises: How is the amount of carbon captured by these projects measured? For example, how much carbon can a tree or forest handle? Are all trees equal in their carbon intake? The uncertainty and variability in carbon-accumulation rates is acknowledged in research studies that are attempting to provide quantification. A study published in Nature compiled more than 13,000 georeferenced measurements to determine the rates for the first 30 years of natural forest regrowth. A map showed more than 100-fold variation in rates across the globe and indicated that default rates from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change may underestimate the rates by 32% on average and do not capture eightfold variation within ecozones. On the other hand, the study concluded that the maximum mitigation potential from natural forest regrowth is 11% lower than previously reported because of the use of overly high rates for locations of potential new forest. While the study was not intended to provide verification to be used in the carbon-offset market, it points to the difficulty in getting the numbers right. Third-party verifiers are casting light on the validity of offsets. Various organizations such as the Climate Registry and the American Carbon Registry (ACR) aim to set standards and best practices. In both the regulated and voluntary carbon markets, ACR says it “oversees the registration and verification of carbon-offset projects following approved carbon accounting methodologies or protocols and issues offsets on a transparent registry system.” In July, CarbonPlan, a nonprofit that analyzes climate solutions based on the best available science and data, rated BCarbon, a standard created by Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, as one of the best publicly available protocols for soil carbon offsets in the US. BCarbon, a nature-based mitigation system, aims to remove CO2 from the atmosphere and store it in soil as organic carbon. Based on independent verification and certification requirements, the credits under the system are issued for the removal of CO2 by photosynthesis and storage as carbon in soil. Landowners are eligible for storage payments. The Baker Institute said the approach could unlock the potential for removal, storage, and certification of upwards of 1 billion tons of CO2 and lead to the protection and restoration of hundreds of millions of acres of grassland. Scrutiny of carbon offsets is beneficial in this expanding carbon market. Verification and certification will serve to increase the trust of both buyers and sellers—and the public—in what will likely be a bridge toward longer-term solutions to reduce global carbon emissions. And getting the numbers right is essential.

Logical Fallacy Argumentation on Testimonials on Homeshopping Television Show

The decision to purchase a product is inseparable from the buyer's trust in a product. Testimonials are a tool for marketers to eliminate consumer barriers about the product to be purchased. Testimonials on home shopping television products tend to be controllable. The selection of sources, the use of scripts, and the editing process can be a form of media control over the information received by the public. This study focus on analyzing testimonials from the logical side of the testimony content. The method used to analyze this logical fallacy is qualitative content analysis. The text is separated using Toulmin's model into three parts, namely claim, ground, and warrant. This research uses a logical fallacy as a tool to evaluate the logic of the testimony in terms of content. The results of this study found that there was a logical fallacy in the testimony content. The fallacies include generalization fallacy, fallacy fallacies, fallacy of composition, appeal to wealth fallacy, appeal to pity, dan appeal to force.

Trust violations in buyer–supplier relationships: Spillovers and the contingent role of governance structures

AbstractBuyer–supplier relationships provide ample opportunities for trust violations to occur. Yet the literature on the impact and outcomes of violations of trust in buyer–supplier relationships is underdeveloped. In this study, we report the results from three complementary scenario‐based experiments that evaluate the impact of a supplier‐induced violation on a buyer's trust in that supplier. We establish a spillover effect of supplier integrity violations onto the buyer's competence dimension of trust, and of supplier competence violations onto the buyer's integrity dimension of trust. We also examine the role of inter‐organizational governance, finding that contractual and relational governance are differentially effective at mitigating trust damages experienced by a buyer after a supplier violation. Specifically, we observe that relational governance helps mitigate damages to buyer's trust following a supplier competence violation, whereas some evidence suggests that contractual governance serves to preserve buyer's trust following a supplier integrity violation. These findings have important theoretical and managerial implications for the management of buyer–supplier relationships. We discuss why the governance structures adopted by firms involved in a buyer–supplier relationship have distinct impacts on trust assessments following a violation.

Analysis of beef cattle marketing channels under transaction costs in rural Ethiopia

The study was designed to analyze beef cattle marketing channel choice under transaction costs. Multistage sampling technique was used to acquire primary data. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and the Multinomial Logit Model. The findings verified that most of the respondents (49%) were selling at the village markets, followed by farm gate and secondary market with 28% and 23%, respectively. The model results revealed that the probability of selling at farm gate and village market versus selling at secondary market increased with season sales, indicating level of market uncertainty. The results affirmed the probability of selling at village market versus selling at secondary market outlet increased with knowledge of buyer and decreased with trust in buyers. Other significant predictors were volume of beef cattle supplied, farmers' experience, and education level. Thus, policies aimed at improving the smallholder farmers’ access to cattle marketing channels should be informed by these factors.
 Int. J. Agril. Res. Innov. Tech. 11(1): 37-48, June 2021

Breach of trust and repair: the impact of salespersons words and actions on buyer trust

PurposeBuilding on prior trust repair research, this study aims to develop a more robust theoretical framework that describes trust repair strategies used by salespeople following a breach of trust.Design/methodology/approachTo achieve the aim of this paper, individual depth interviews with 18 professional salespeople, 4 sales executives and 7 purchasing agents were undertaken.FindingsThis paper examines the value of using trust repair strategies (e.g. restoration, regulation and verbal repair strategies) both in isolation and in conjunction. The results suggest that individual trust repair strategies operate through impacting different dimensions of justice, as justice provides a reliable indicator as to whether the salesperson can be trusted in the future. This paper also finds that combining multiple trust repair strategies can have an additive effect on trust.Originality/valueThis paper uses thematic analysis to inductively identify the effective trust repair strategies that are used by salespeople in actual exchange relationships while integrating these insights with the existing theoretical frameworks in the literature. It contributes to theory through creating a conceptual model explaining the breach of trust and trust repair process, introducing justice as a direct mediating mechanism between trust repair strategies and increased trust. The research also develops a new perspective on combining salesperson words and actions to repair trust. It also provides a managerial contribution through introducing an optimized approach to trust repair in buyer-seller relationships.

The Effect OfGoods Prices And Buyer Trust On The E-Commerce Sales System For Purchasing Goods Online

E-commerce is a payment system that is currently booming with e-commerce, so all sales systems that were offline go online and sales systems that were only in one region can be around the world without time limits and where development is compressed so high that it causes There are many changes from the traditional sales system to the internet. Therefore, this study will determine the effect of goods prices and buyer trust on the e-commerce sales system for purchasing goods online. The method used in this research is quantitative methods using a questionnaire that will be distributed in order to obtain data that can be used as research data so that the data can be used as a reference for current research and future research using the questionnaire method so that we will be able to get real data in the field because it is based on data directly obtained from e-commerce customers. The e-commerce system has begun to be developed in the 2000s but has not been used maximally but after the Covid 19 pandemic, now the e-commerce sales system has been very, very developed because of the limitations of the place and time of the Covid 19 pandemic resulting in the prohibition of physical contact. from sellers and buyers, therefore the e-commerce system speaks to the problems that already exist today with the existence of e-commerce so that sellers and buyers can still transact with online media. In this study will be able to produce data that can answer the problem in this research in this study will answer the problem of how the relationship between low prices and customer trust in the e-commerce sales system based on online shopping with online media, therefore this research will use quantitative methods. as an appropriate research method.

Consumer Trust as the Antecedent of Online Consumer Purchase Decision

The e-commerce industry in Indonesia is growing in line with the increasing number of internet users in Indonesia. Unfortunately, many internet users in Indonesia are still unsure about shopping online because of the lack of buyer trust with sellers and service providers. This study aims to identify the factors that influence online shop consumers to conduct transactions online. This research used a questionnaire survey distributed to customers who had ever used an online shop application. The sample used in this research was 468 respondents. The data collected was then analyzed using Partial Least Square. The results of this research indicated that trust, perceived value, and buying interest positively influence consumers’ decisions to purchase using an online shop application.

Resampling imbalanced data to detect fake reviews using machine learning classifiers and textual-based features

Fraudulent online sellers often collude with reviewers to garner fake reviews for their products. This act undermines the trust of buyers in product reviews, and potentially reduces the effectiveness of online markets. Being able to accurately detect fake reviews is, therefore, critical. In this study, we investigate several preprocessing and textual-based featuring methods along with machine learning classifiers, including single and ensemble models, to build a fake review detection system. Given the nature of product review data, where the number of fake reviews is far less than that of genuine reviews, we look into the results of each class in detail in addition to the overall results. We recognise from our preliminary analysis that, owing to imbalanced data, there is a high imbalance between the accuracies for different classes (e.g., 1.3% for the fake review class and 99.7% for the genuine review class), despite the overall accuracy looking promising (around 89.7%). We propose two dynamic random sampling techniques that are possible for textual-based featuring methods to solve this class imbalance problem. Our results indicate that both sampling techniques can improve the accuracy of the fake review class—for balanced datasets, the accuracies can be improved to a maximum of 84.5% and 75.6% for random under and over-sampling, respectively. However, the accuracies for genuine reviews decrease to 75% and 58.8% for random under and over-sampling, respectively. We also discover that, for smaller datasets, the Adaptive Boosting ensemble model outperforms other single classifiers; whereas, for larger datasets, the performance improvement from ensemble models is insignificant compared to the best results obtained by single classifiers.

The role of brand representatives in predicting trust in early buyer–supplier relationships

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to explore the dynamics of trust creation in an early buyer–supplier relationship phase at the interpersonal level. The authors use a brand-based communication approach to investigate the trust–risk–commitment link.Design/methodology/approachSurvey data from 204 senior managers in small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) in Australia were collected and analyzed.FindingsResults indicate that ability, credibility, benevolence and persona of supplier brand representatives (SBRs) relate significantly to a buyers’ trust in SBR, leading to diminished perceived risk, and increased relationship commitment between the parties. These findings support the importance of using individual representatives who are able to broadcast their supplier’s brand values, and increase trust in exploratory buyer–supplier relationships.Research limitations/implicationsThis research focused on SMEs in Australia, investigating exploratory phase of the interpersonal relationships. Future research can investigate large firms interacting in different relationship phases in the light of brand-based communication.Practical implicationsThe study describes several strategies for both buying and supplying firms to use, to best use brand-based communication as a means to build trust in the early phases of buyer–supplier relationships.Originality/valuePrior research has focused on interorganizational trust and established or mature buyer–supplier relationships. This study investigates the initial phase of buyer–supplier relationships, and at the interpersonal exchange level. It also incorporates a role for brand-based communication in the buyer–supplier relationship which has received limited attention in the literature.

KEPERCAYAAN PEMBELI TERHADAP PERUSAHAAN PEMASOK DALAM HUBUNGANNYA DENGAN ANTISIPASI PEMBELIAN DIWAKTU YANG AKAN DATANG

The appropriate strategy of buying raw malerials is the key success of business operation in every company, because the suppliers are responsible in delermining and delivering a high quality product which can satisfy the customer's needs and wants. The purpose of this re- search is to investigate the relationship between reputation and supplier's or seller's size to the buyer trust, and relationship between buyer's trust and anticipated future interaction. For analyzing data, the study uses Structural Equation Model, statistical technique which enables testing of buitd between one or several dependent variables and one or several independent variables. The research gives several implications to the suppliers policy. First, it is important for the supplers to manage customer's perception in order to maintain its reputation. Second, the size of suppliers becomes important because it can present good perception that the companies have positive value (honest, responsible, punctual, etc). Third, trustof the buyers is the key for building long-term relationship. Suggestion for next research is to add characler- isics of suppller's sales person to build full trustof the buyers, and to bring significant cultural role in creating tnrust.

Impact of relational communication on buyer–supplier relationship satisfaction: role of trust and commitment

PurposeThe present study aims to examine the impact of relational communication, operationalized in terms of information sharing, quality and frequency of information, on buyer's trust and relationship satisfaction in a buyer–vendor relationship. The study also tests the mediating role of trust and the moderating role of relationship commitment in relational communication and satisfaction relationship.Design/methodology/approachThe data for the study were collected through a questionnaire survey from 321 managers of the different firms who were directly or indirectly involved in making procurement or purchasing decision in the firm and were familiar with the firm's supplier relationships.FindingsRelational communication was found to be positively related to relational satisfaction and trust partially mediated this relationship. Further, relationship commitment moderated relational communication-satisfaction relationship, such that the positive affect of relational communication on relational satisfaction was accentuated when buyer experienced higher relationship commitment towards the supplier.Research limitations/implicationsUsing single source, self-reported questionnaire data and cross-sectional research design are the limitations of this study. Studies in future should consider a dyadic perspective. The study outlines the need to explore investments and strategies in enhancing relational communication in buyer–vendor relationships.Originality/valueAnchored in theoretical foundations of social exchange theory, the study integrates and tests behavioral aspects of buyer–vendor relationship. Testing an integrated model with direct and indirect effects of relational communication on relationship satisfaction in buyer–vendor is a significant contribution of the research. The study also contributes by examining relational exchanges in buyer-vendor relationships in India, an underrepresented context in buyer–supplier relationship (BSR) literature.

Which is More Effective for Platform Performance: Punishments or Incentives?

The success of online third-party business-to-business (B2B) platforms relies heavily on simultaneous governance of both sellers and buyers. This study examined and compared the effects of punishments and incentives on seller’s opportunism toward platforms, buyers’ trust in platforms, and platform performance using data from B2B platforms in China. The results show that punishments (both severity and speed) and incentives toward sellers are negatively related to sellers’ opportunism toward platform. The effect of punishment severity is greater than that of punishment speed or incentives on curbing seller opportunism, and the effect of punishment speed is not significantly different from that of incentives. The findings also reveal that both punishment severity and speed toward sellers are positively related to buyers’ trust in platform, although their effects are not significantly different from each other. Additionally, incentives toward buyers do not significantly affect buyers’ trust in platform, and both punishment severity and speed have a greater effect than buyer incentives on building buyer trust. These findings not only make novel theoretical contributions to the B2B platform and governance literature by exploring platforms’ triadic governance issue but also provide valuable practical suggestions for platform managers.

Fairness Asymmetry and Changes of Trust and Explicit Contracts in Buyer–Supplier Exchanges

Despite the critical role of fairness in economic transactions, studies about asymmetric perceptions of fairness between exchange parties are very limited. By adopting a dyadic and dynamic perspective, the study investigates the impacts of fairness asymmetry on changes in trust and explicit contracts over time. With a two-wave longitudinal sample of 229 buyer–supplier dyads, the results show that over time, fairness asymmetry leads to a decrease of shared trust and an increase of explicit contracts. Our findings also reveal that both market uncertainty and behavioral uncertainty make the effect of fairness asymmetry on change in shared trust more adverse. Moreover, market uncertainty enhances the role of fairness asymmetry in developing explicit contracts. The study provides novel insights into the implications of fairness for formal and informal governance mechanisms in ongoing interorganizational relationships.

Bilateral dependency and supplier performance ambiguity in supply chain contracting: Evidence from the railroad industry

AbstractResearch on supply chain relationships tends to focus on power and asymmetric dependency. Our objective is to complement this by examining contractual challenges in the context of bilateral dependency. Our specific empirical focus is on how Indian Railways, one of the largest railroads in the world, manages warranty claims related to engine failures. Warranty resolution is complex, because failures typically involve the simultaneous failure of several engine subsystems provided by different suppliers, giving rise to supplier performance ambiguity. Through a combination of theoretical reflection rooted in transaction cost economics and an empirical analysis of Indian Railways' supply chain, we argue that in the case of bilateral dependency, “the benign approach” is more efficient than “the muscular approach,” to use Oliver Williamson's terminology. Specifically, while the latter is founded on unilateral decisions by the comparatively more powerful party, the former is based on voluntary long‐term cooperation, and calls for mutual credible commitments and joint problem‐solving. Additionally, we highlight that even if dependency is asymmetric at the outset, it can develop bilateral features over time. Theoretically, our research offers an enhanced understanding of trust in buyer–supplier relationships, emphasizing its organizational as opposed to personal basis.

A Metrics Ecosystem for Designing Quality E-Commerce Systems

E-commerce has become a prime channel for doing commerce both globally and locally. It has gained the trust of buyers worldwide not only because of the supporting technologies but for the ever-increasing quality of service provided by most vendors as well. Quality is and will be a competitive advantage in ecommerce as competition on an international scale increases. Designing quality e-commerce software is one battle that needs to be won in this war and tools such as formal standards are key weapons. In this paper an eco-system of software quality metrics is presented based on the ISO25010 standard. These metrics are mapped to quality characteristics of the software and to facets of user-system interaction so as to provide designers and developers insights and guidelines on how produce quality e-commerce systems. A representative set of 29 new metrics for the quality characteristics of Functional Suitability and Usability is presented.