Trust-building Strategies Research Articles

Trust Building Recruitment Strategies for Researchers Conducting Studies in African American (AA) Churches: Lessons Learned.

An initial and vital important step in recruiting participants for church-based hospice and palliative care research is the establishment of trust and credibility within the church community. Mistrust of medical research is an extremely important barrier hindering recruitment in African American (AA) communities. A church-based EOL dementia education project is currently being conducted at four large urban AA churches. Church leaders voiced mistrust concerns of previous researchers who conducted investigations in their faith-based institutions. We explored strategies to ameliorate the mistrust concerns. Specific aim: To identify trust-rebuilding elements for researchers following others who violated trust of AA church leaders. Face-to-face, in-depth interviews were conducted from a convenient sample of four established AA church leaders. Interviews were held in the informants' churches to promote candor and comfort in revealing sensitive information about trust /mistrust. Content analysis framework was used to analyze the data. Elements identified from the analysis were then used to create themes. Multidimensional overarching themes emerged from the analysis included: Experience with researchers (positive and extremely negative), violation of trust and trust building strategies. Findings suggest that researchers who wish to conduct successful studies in the AA religious institutions must implement trust rebuilding strategies that include mutual respect, collaboration and partnership building. If general moral practices continue to be violated, threat to future hospice and palliative care research within the institutions may prevail. Thus, potential benefits are thwarted for the church members, AA community, and advancement of EOL care scholarship.

Efficiency may improve when defectors exist

In repeated Prisoner’s Dilemma, the C-trigger strategy played by all players is well known to achieve symmetric efficiency when players are sufficiently patient. By contrast, if players are free to quit a repeated Prisoner’s Dilemma without information flow to new partners, cooperation from the outset of new partnerships cannot be a part of any symmetric equilibrium. Fujiwara-Greve and Okuno-Fujiwara (Rev Econ Stud 76:993–1021, 2009) showed that symmetric trust-building strategies can constitute an equilibrium for sufficiently long initial (D, D) (trust-building) periods. However, trust-building periods create social loss of payoffs, and there is a possibility that an asymmetric equilibrium with some players cooperating immediately, while others defect, may be more efficient. We show that there is a “fundamentally asymmetric” locally stable Nash equilibrium consisting of the most cooperative strategy (C-trigger with ending the partnership when betrayed) and the most noncooperative strategy, which plays D and ends the partnership immediately. When the deviation gain is relatively small, the fundamentally asymmetric equilibrium is neutrally stable against equilibrium entrants within trust-building strategies and is more efficient than any Nash equilibrium consisting of non-degenerate trust-building strategies. Our result indicates that behavioral diversity can be stable and beneficial for the society, even if players are free to escape from personalized punishments.

“They Know, They Agree, but They Don’t Do”- The Paradox of Tuberculosis Case Notification by Private Practitioners in Alappuzha District, Kerala, India

BackgroundDespite being a recognized standard of tuberculosis (TB) care internationally, mandatory TB case notification brings forth challenges from the private sector. Only three TB cases were notified in 2013 by private practitioners compared to 2000 TB cases notified yearly from the public sector in Alappuzha district. The study objective was to explore the knowledge, opinion and barriers regarding TB Notification among private practitioners offering TB services in Alappuzha, Kerala state, India.Methods & FindingsThis was a mixed-methods study with quantitative (survey) and qualitative components conducted between December 2013 and July 2014. The survey, using a structured questionnaire, among 169 private practitioners revealed that 88% were aware of mandatory notification. All patient-related details requested in the notification form (except government-issued identification number) were perceived to be important and easy to provide by more than 80% of practitioners. While more than 95% felt that notification should be mandatory, punitive action in case of failure to notify was considered unnecessary by almost two third. General practitioners (98%) were more likely to be aware of notification than specialists (84 %). (P<0.01). Qualitative purposive personal interviews (n=34) were carried out among private practitioners and public health providers. On thematic framework analysis of the responses, barriers to TB notification were grouped into three themes: ‘private provider misconceptions about notification’, ‘patient confidentiality, and stigma and discrimination ’and ‘lack of cohesion and coordination between public and private sector’. Private practitioners did not consider it necessary to notify TB cases treated with daily regimen.ConclusionCommunication strategies like training, timely dissemination of information of policy changes and one-to-one dialogue with private practitioners to dispel misconceptions may enhance TB notification. Trust building strategies like providing feedback about referred cases from private sector, health personnel visit or a liaison private doctor may ensure compliance to public health activities.

Determinants of Young Consumers’ Intention to Use Internet Banking Services in India

This article investigates the determinants of young consumers’ intention to use Internet banking services in India. The current research developed a theoretical model grounded on technology acceptance model (TAM) by incorporating additional variable such as trust, perceived risk, social influence and self-efficacy. The study collected a total of 155 usable responses through convenience sampling from university students aged between 18 and 36 years. Correlation and multiple regression analysis was employed to determine the underlying relationship between dependent variable (behavioural intention) and independent variables. The results revealed that perceived usefulness (PU), ease of use, trust, self-efficacy and social influence have significant positive influence on young consumers’ intention to use Internet banking, whereas perceived risk exerted significant negative effect. Among all these factors, perceived risk has major significant effect on intention, followed by PU, perceived ease of use and trust. Hence, bank practitioners should focus on increasing usefulness of Internet banking system and devise trust building strategies that would reduce consumers’ perceived risk and attract them to use Internet banking.

Advancing Public Trust Relationships in Electronic Government: The Singapore E-Filing Journey

E-governments have become an increasingly integral part of the virtual economic landscape. However, e-government systems have been plagued by an unsatisfactory, or even a decreasing, level of trust among citizen users. The political exclusivity and longstanding bureaucracy of governmental institutions have amplified the level of difficulty in gaining citizens' acceptance of e-government systems. Through the synthesis of trust-building processes with trust relational forms, we construct a multidimensional, integrated analytical framework to guide our investigation of how e-government systems can be structured to restore trust in citizen-government relationships. Specifically, the analytical framework identifies trust-building strategies (calculative-based, prediction-based, intentionality-based, capability-based, and transference-based trust) to be enacted for restoring public trust via e-government systems. Applying the analytical framework to the case of Singapore's Electronic Tax-Filing (E-Filing) system, we advance an e-government developmental model that yields both developmental prescriptions and technological specifications for the realization of these trust-building strategies. Further, we highlight the impact of sociopolitical climates on the speed of e-government maturity.

The Globalization of Risk and Risk Perception

Risk communication and vaccines is complex and the nature of risk perception is changing, with perceptions converging, evolving and having impacts well beyond specific geographic localities and points in time, especially when amplified through the Internet and other modes of global communication. This article examines the globalization of risk perceptions and their impacts, including the example of measles and the globalization of measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine risk perceptions, and calls for a new, more holistic model of risk assessment, risk communication and risk mitigation, embedded in an ongoing process of risk management for vaccines and immunization programmes. It envisions risk communication as an ongoing process that includes trust-building strategies hand-in-hand with operational and policy strategies needed to mitigate and manage vaccine-related risks, as well as perceptions of risk.

Behavioral Diversity in Voluntarily Separable Repeated Prisoner's Dilemma

In the literature of voluntarily repeated Prisoner's Dilemma type games with no information flow, the focus is on how long-term cooperation is established. In this paper we investigate how non-cooperative and cooperative players co-exist. In many incomplete information versions of a similar model, inherently non-cooperative players are assumed to exist in the society, but their long-run fitness has not been analyzed. In reality and in experiments, we also observe that some people are cooperative, while others never cooperate. We show that, although defect-and-run type strategies are vulnerable to invasion of trust-building strategies (which defect initially but cooperate later among themselves), distributions of both types of strategies can be evolutionarily stable under equilibrium entrants. Moreover, the bimorphic equilibrium of the most cooperative strategy and the most myopic strategy exists under any payoff parameter combination, while bimorphic equilibria consisting only of cooperative (trust-building) strategies may not exist. In terms of payoffs, the bimorphic equilibrium of contrary strategies is equivalent to the equilibrium of infinitely many trust-building strategies. Both equilibria confirm the persistent presence of defectors.

Strategies for nurturing trust in the wider Black Sea region

There is no absolute measure of security in international relations. A situation that one actor perceives as threatening, does not appear that to someone else in a similar situation. Security is essentially about subjective judgements and therefore the role of psychology should not be ignored in security studies. Trust influences the ways states and other actors behave towards each other. This concluding article considers different strategies for managing distrust and building trust in such a way that enhances fragile stability and security and encourages peaceful cooperation between different actors in the wider Black Sea region. Managed distrust means that distrust between actors is under control in such a way that a full-blown conflict is unlikely and that some restricted and carefully monitored cooperation to advance mutual goals is possible between the distrustful actors – be they states or non-state actors. The article starts with analytical consideration of the regional context and then summarizes the current trust-related policies discussed in the empirical case studies included in this volume. Finally, potentially effective trust-building strategies in the region will be considered.

Toward holistic insights into trust in electronic markets: examining the structure of the relationship between vendor trust and its antecedents

This review advances propositions regarding the structure of the relationship between vendor trust and its antecedents as this structure pertains to the relative and complementary effectiveness of trust-building strategies. By understanding how the relationship between vendor trust and its antecedents is structured and why this relationship is structured the way it is, we hope to gain more holistic insights into trust in electronic market transactions and to provide online businesses with a clear recommendation of how to establish trust in an effective and efficient manner. Thus, while past research has made important contributions by uncovering a great number of antecedents to vendor trust, this review examines two strategies more in depth: Vendor reputation and Web site trust. Drawing from the literature on trust, we propose Vendor reputation to be more effective than Web site trust. We also propose a small complementary effect between Vendor reputation and Web site trust that may help online businesses to generate superior vendor trust.

A Prediction Model for Initial Trust Formation in Electronic Commerce

This research investigates trust-building strategies that may influence transactions between individuals and unknown Internet firms, focusing on three influential components that mediate the relationship between online shoppers and online vendors. Results indicate significant direct effects for trust in the Internet infrastructure, susceptibility to the social influence of media, and the presence of influential site characteristics on user willingness to provide personal information to unknown Internet firms. This study extends the research on trust in electronic commerce by providing a prediction model that is demonstrated to calculate the probability of user willingness to provide information. The utility of the model for identifying the relative importance of factors and predicting outcomes lends insight into important issues in online trust formation. Knowledge of effective trust-building strategies guide organizations that use the Internet for selling, marketing, or servicing customers to gain maximum benefits from investments in e-commerce applications.

Safeguarding the Future of Democracy

The tenets of democracy appear to be facing a crisis in modern western societies, as trust in public figures and institutions—including politicians and government—declines and distrust of them increases. This decline is particularly visible in the cynical attitudes and non-voting behaviour of British young people. This paper presents a more contemporary conceptualisation of trust and distrust, from which four segments of young voters and non-voters emerge. A mix of calculative, predictive and identification trust-building strategies are applied to these four segments to reinforce their trust and reduce their distrust, thereby reconnecting them with parliamentary politics. This paper concludes with an agenda for further research.

Perceptions of no-name recognition business to consumer e-commerce trustworthiness: the effectiveness of potential influence tactics

Trust is critical to the success of business to consumer e-commerce. Despite the importance of context when studying trust and the richness of the trust literature, there has been little research linking trust and e-commerce. This study integrates relevant trust literature and builds on Murphy and Smart's [New Engl. J. Entrep. 3 (2000) 33] model of factors proposed to impact online consumers' perceived trustworthiness of unfamiliar business to consumer e-commerce vendors. Based on a web survey depicting a mock web business, this study identified 16 trust-building strategies that significantly enhanced perceptions of ability, benevolence, integrity, and overall trustworthiness. The trust-building strategies were also found to enhance respondents' stated behavioral willingness to trust. Mixed support was found for the hypothesis that trust-building strategies believed to focus on transactional trust would have their strongest effects on perceived ability and integrity while trust-building strategies believed to impact transactional and relational trust would equally impact perceived ability, integrity, and benevolence.

Gaining and sustaining minority participation in longitudinal research projects.

African-Americans are often not enthusiastic about participating in Alzheimer disease research due to past exploitation from medical and public health studies. To assure adequate representation from the African-American community, and to investigate the health needs of this population, strategies to recognize the problems and address the issues have been developed. The recruitment approach used existing connections in an urban community using culturally sensitive strategies. These strategies recruited elderly patients from an existing relationship with the Boston University Medical Center Geriatric Service. They built on the researchers' association with a neighborhood health center located in one of the Boston communities and utilized the services of an outreach worker. The outreach worker was from the community, aware of the health care needs of the elderly, and had a relationship with existing elderly community groups. Several methods were used to recruit patients. These included one-on-one discussions, posters, existing relationships with elderly groups, and direct phone calls. To develop trust carefully with the community's elders, multiple trust-building strategies were used. A multifaceted recruitment approach and strong linkages between the research team and the community were essential to successful recruitment and retention of participants.

Difficult denture patients: Observations and hypothesis

The similarities between the HRC and the DDP have been presented. The HRC has been described by many investigators in the psychoanalytic literature. Indications are that both the HRC and the DDP are working through the same mechanism. The similarities are as follows: Both types of patients are driven by a need to seek treatment from someone they will ultimately reject. A self-fulfilling prophecy develops as a cycle leading to failure. Due to lack of trust and a desire to feel important, the patient creates an atmosphere that leads to discord, hostility, anger, and frustration. Resultant discord leads to the establishment of a relationship that demands much time and energy from the helper. The helper is ultimately manipulated into a no-win situation that ends with the helper dismissing the patient, thereby completing the patient's self-fulfilling prophecy. Recurrent stress in the patient's life recycles the drive force and the need for treatment and attention starts all over again. With greater understanding of the DDP's problems, management solutions could be formulated. Management techniques might include an initial interview with trust-building strategies, the reassurance to the patient of the uniqueness of his situation to neutralize the need to create a crisis for his own identity; and challenges to point out the hopelessness of their position to activate the patient's need to prove the helper wrong. Finally, in addition to management of the patient, techniques can be developed to identify the DDP with HRC tendencies. Proper recognition and diagnosis before treatment begins can prevent many problems associated with these patients and prevent stress and discord for both dentist and patients.