Benevolence Trust Research Articles

What is in a student-faculty relationship? A template analysis of students’ positive and negative critical incidents with faculty and staff in higher education

Supportive relationships between students and their educational faculty and staff can foster positive outcomes such as students’ involvement and development. However, research investigating how students perceive the quality of their relationships with educational faculty/staff (i.e., relationship quality) so far remains scarce. This study’s aim was to gain more insight into the construct of relationship quality in higher education using a qualitative approach. Students’ descriptions of their positive (n = 294) and negative relationship experiences (n = 395) were collected using a critical incident technique (final sample N = 513 critical incidents) followed by a template analysis with a priori themes (i.e., relationship quality dimensions: trust in honesty, trust in benevolence, satisfaction, affective commitment, affective conflict). Results indicated that students most often mentioned trust in honesty and trust in benevolence. Affective conflict was not always explicitly mentioned in negative experiences, nor satisfaction in positive experiences. Descriptions of trust in benevolence (n = 355) were equally distributed over positive and negative incidents. However, trust in honesty was more often referred to in negative (n = 145) than in positive incidents (n = 51). The results indicated that students considered timely response to assignments and emails important, and teachers showing interest and attention. The study’s findings provide a new view of how students might positively and negatively perceive the quality of their relationship with educational faculty and staff. This study adds to the theoretical and practical implications of relationship quality research in higher education and how relational aspects are important for students.

Restaurant proactive philanthropic activities and customer loyalty: a scenario-based study during the COVID-19 pandemic period

PurposeThis study aims to (1) examine the effect of customer awareness of restaurant philanthropic activities on customer loyalty; (2) investigate the mediating roles of customer social benevolence trust, perceived restaurant reputation and affective commitment on the relationship between their awareness of restaurant philanthropic activities and customer loyalty; and (3) test the path effect differences between the directed and general philanthropic activities during the COVID-19 pandemic period.Design/methodology/approachThis study used online scenario-based surveys to collect data. Based on 293 useable surveys, partial least squares structural equation modeling was applied for data analysis.FindingsThis study finds that customer awareness of restaurant philanthropic activities positively relates to customer loyalty. Moreover, customer social benevolence trust, perceived restaurant reputation and affective commitment have positive mediating effects on the relationship between their awareness of restaurant philanthropic activities and customer loyalty. There is no significant path effect difference between the directed and general philanthropic activities.Practical implicationsThis study suggests that restaurant decision-makers should conduct either directed or general philanthropic activities as a marketing tool to sustain customers during the COVID-19 recovery.Originality/valueThis study is the first study that discusses the marketing role of corporate philanthropy in the restaurant industry during the COVID-19 pandemic and stresses the importance of proactive strategic donations that helps restaurants' recovery.

Building relationships in higher education to support students’ motivation

ABSTRACT Student-teacher relationships in higher education take place in two embedded social contexts: the in-class environment and the educational institute in which the in-class environment is situated. The interplay between the two contexts and their association with students’ motivation was studied in the current study. In a broad sample (N=597), perceptions of student-staff relationship quality, need-supportive teaching in class, and autonomous and controlled motivation were measured. Perceptions of in-class teacher involvement were associated with autonomous motivation, while perceptions of in-class teacher structure were associated with controlled motivation. The association of perceptions of in-class teacher involvement and autonomy support with autonomous motivation seemed to be suppressed by perceptions of trust in benevolence. This indicates that students can get a ‘just tell me what to do’- attitude when trust in benevolence makes them shift from being supported to depending on support. Studying both embedded contexts in one analysis, resulted in a more fine-grained insight.

The Neuroscience of Trust Violation

Trust is widely regarding as being foundational in human relationships. The violation of interpersonal trust results in a range of negative affective, cognitive and behavioural consequences for the injured party. Research has yet to isolate the specific neural areas and mechanisms activated when different types of interpersonal trust are breached. Using electroencephalogram, we tracked the effects of three distinct types of trust violations, ability violation, integrity violation and benevolence violations, on brain activation. Our results identify the significance of the default mode network (DNM) in trust violation and further isolated distinct activation patterns for ability, integrity and benevolence trust violation. These findings highlight the importance of the DMN in processing cues regarding the trustworthiness of others and the distinctiveness of the processing of violation cues of the three facets of trustworthiness.

The nexus between corporate social responsibility and target-based customer citizenship behavior

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become an increasingly important strategy used by firms to improve consumers’ favorable responses. Drawing on social identity theory, social exchange theory, and equity theory, this study developed an integrative model to examine how CSR, benevolence trust, and individualism-collectivism orientation jointly affect two types of target-based customer citizenship behavior (CCB): firm- and customer-oriented. Empirical evidence was obtained from 396 hotel customers in North Cyprus, and a structural equation modeling approach was applied. The findings show that CSR has a positive impact on target-based CCBs and is a stronger predictor of customer-oriented CCB than firm-oriented CCB. The findings also revealed that benevolence trust mediates the relationship between CSR and CCB and that individualism-collectivism orientation directly moderates the CSR-CCB link. Additionally, customers’ individualism-collectivism orientation moderates the indirect effects of CSR and customer-oriented CCB through perceived benevolence trust but does not moderate the indirect effect of CSR on firm-oriented CCB through perceived benevolence trust. The research contributes to the literature by uncovering the underlying mechanism of how and under what conditions CSR promotes target-based CCBs in the hospitality context.

Trust and reciprocity effect on electronic word-of-mouth in online review communities

PurposeSocial media developments in the last decade have led to the emergence of a new form of word of mouth (WOM) in the digital environment. Electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) is considered by many scholars and practitioners to be the most influential informal communication mechanism between businesses and potential and actual consumers. The purpose of this paper is to extend knowledge about WOM in this new context by proposing a conceptual framework that enables a better understanding of how trust and reciprocity influence eWOM participation in ORCs.Design/methodology/approachThis study applies non-probability convenience sampling technique to conduct a quantitative study of data from an online survey of 189 members of ORCs. Partial least squares (PLS) is used to analyse the correlations between individuals’ intention to seek opinion, to give their own opinion and to pass on the opinion of another within ORCs.FindingsThe data analysis reveals that opinion seeking within ORCs had a direct effect on opinion giving and opinion passing. Ability trust and integrity trust had a positive effect on opinion seeking, while benevolence trust had a direct positive effect on opinion passing. Reciprocity had a direct impact on opinion passing. While reciprocity did not affect opinion giving, the relationship between these two concepts was mediated by integrity trust.Research limitations/implicationsBy studying the complexities that characterise the relationships between reciprocity, trust and eWOM, the study extends understanding of eWOM in ORCs.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of only a few papers that have examined the complex interrelationships between reciprocity, trust and eWOM in the context of ORCs.

Integrating reciprocity into a social exchange model of inter-firm B2B relationships

PurposeReciprocity has traditionally been overlooked in social exchange models of inter-firm relationships. Therefore, this research integrates reciprocity and its antecedents into a social exchange model of inter-firm relationships.Design/methodology/approachThe authors collected primary data from a sample of firms in the Republic of Korea using a questionnaire. They also used covariance-based structural equations modeling to fit the model given the proposed conceptualization.FindingsBoth conceptually and empirically, adding reciprocity and its antecedents to the social exchange model produce results that differ from previously published papers. Specifically, reciprocity affects information exchanged indirectly through both credibility and benevolence trust. In addition, the effect of information exchange mediates the effect of trust on calculative and affective commitment.Research limitations/implicationsThe foundation of long-term inter-firm relationships is quality information exchange, which is based on the development of credibility and benevolence trust, which in turn is based on reciprocity. Thus, reciprocity is a key variable in relationship development.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is among the first to combine reciprocity and its antecedents into a social exchange model that contains trust and commitment. This model provides a bigger picture of how firms develop long-term relationships with their partner firms.

Corporate Social Responsibility and Inter-Organisational Trust in a B2B Context

Purpose: The purpose of the paper to reveal the linkage between the customer perception of the supplier’s CSR and inter-organisational trust in a B2B context.Methodology/Approach: The paper conceptualises the customer perception of CSR activities as a latent second-order factor composed of three dimensions: CSR towards environment and community; CSR towards employees; and CSR towards customers. Three-dimensional understanding of inter-organisational trust, is applied in this paper. A quantitative study was conducted.Findings: As it was expected, the findings revealed that the customer perception of supplier’s CSR, namely CSR towards environment and community, towards employees and customers, generates inter-organisational trust that could be divided into competence trust, benevolence trust and integrity trust.Research Limitation/implication: Seeing that the paper uses a sample from a single country, it has a limitation due to its restrictive generalisability (especially having in mind that the research was done in a low-trust societal context). Moreover, the paper does not incorporate the characteristics of organisations, and the future research could elaborate on the issues of how the perceived CSR and its impacts on inter-organisational trust vary depending on organisational financial performance, market share, and so forth.Originality/Value of paper: The paper challenges the researchers and managers to move towards more sophisticated assessments concerning the way the customer perception of CSR affects inter-organisational trust in a B2B context, which might lead to improved organisational performance and sustainability.

Does Food Safety Risk Perception Affect the Public's Trust in Their Government? An Empirical Study on a National Survey in China.

This paper studies the impacts of food safety risk perception on the different dimensions of governmental trust. A logistic regression model was constructed based on the multidimensional analysis of government trust (i.e., competence, benevolence and honesty) with food safety risk perception, economic growth, combating corruption, social trust, political participation and demographic characteristics as explanatory variables. The main findings are that respondents with low levels of food risk perception, high political participation and a positive evaluation of economic growth and anti-corruption performance show high levels of trust in government competence, benevolence and honesty. Social trust has a spillover effect, which has a significant impact on government competence and benevolence but has no significant impact on the honesty of the government, which reflects the distinction between different dimensions of the public’s trust in their government. Highly educated people have low levels of trust in government competence, high levels of trust in government benevolence, and no significant impact on the judgment of government honesty. In general, the public speak lowly of the status of food safety and have limited interest in political participation. The government is better to strengthen food safety supervision and develop social capital to further enhance the public’s governmental trust.

Alumni loyalty drivers in higher education

Alumni can be of enormous value for higher education institutions because of the time and money they can spend on their former institution. Going beyond prior research that has as yet mostly considered alumni giving, this study focuses on exploring drivers for non-monetary alumni behavior (i.e., alumni loyalty). Modeling analysis was conducted on 152 alumni responses from two Dutch universities of applied sciences. Based on social exchange theory, a structural equation model was tested in which relationship quality dimensions were associated with student engagement, which in turn were related to alumni loyalty. Findings showed that the relationship quality dimensions of trust in benevolence and affective commitment had a statistically significant positive association with the student engagement dimensions absorption, dedication and vigor, and with alumni loyalty. The findings of this study support the importance of relationship quality dimensions in higher education for initiating long-lasting relationships with students even after their graduation, and for establishing non-monetary contributions in terms of alumni loyalty.

자동차 제조업체의 영향전략이 호의에 대한 대리점의 신뢰와 갈등에 미치는 영향

자동차 제조업체의 영향전략이 호의에 대한 대리점의 신뢰와 갈등에 미치는 영향

The Effect of Being Trusted Perception on Franchisee Performance －The Moderating Role of Relationship Velocity－

본 연구에서는 교환관계에 있는 기업의 성과향상에 있어 “신뢰지각(Being Trusted Perception)”이라는 새로운 개념을 제시하고 있다. 신뢰에 관한 지금까지의 연구들은 상호 신뢰의 중요성을 인식하면서도, 상대방에 대한 나의 신뢰에만 초점을 맞추고 상대가 주는 신뢰에 대한 나의 인식은 다소 간과해온 경향이 있다. 이는 상대방에 대한 신뢰의 크기와 상대방이 인식한 신뢰의 크기가 서로 같을 것이라는 전제에 기반하고 있기 때문이다. 하지만 상호 커뮤니케이션의 부족, 거래 상대방의 특성 등 다양한 이유로 인해 주체와 객체가 인식하는 신뢰의 크기는 서로 다를 수 있으며 상호신뢰의 비대칭 현상이 있을 가능성이 존재한다. 이에 본 연구는 신뢰지각의 차원을 신용과 호혜적 측면으로 구분하여 두 신뢰지각이 기업 성과로 연결된다는 사실을 확인하였다. 또한 본 연구의 결과에 따르면, 신용과 호혜적 신뢰지각을 향상시키기 위한 관리 기제가 서로 다른 것으로 나타났다. 신용적 신뢰지각의 경우 보상기제인 물질적 보상의 영향력이 가장 큰 가운데, 상징적 보상과 통제 기제인 감시가 영향을 미치는 반면, 계약의 명시성은 별다른 영향을 주지 않는 것으로 확인되었다. 한편 호혜적 신용지각에 대해서는 감시가 매우 부정적인 영향을 미치는 가운데 상징적 보상과 계약의 명시성이 영향을 미치는 반면, 물질적 보상은 유의한 영향을 미치지 않는 것으로 나타났다. 마지막으로 본 연구에서는 신뢰지각이 기업 성과에 미치는 영향에 있어 관계 벨로시티가 갖는 상황적 효과를 규명했다. 연구 결과에 따르면, 신용적 신뢰지각이 기업 성과에 미치는 영향은 관계 벨로시티에 큰 영향을 받지 않는 반면, 호혜적 신뢰지각의 기업 성과에 대한 영향력은 관계 벨로시티가 높을 때 더욱 커지는 것으로 확인되었다.The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of corporate relationship management on performance, especially in the franchise industry, a major service distribution organization. Franchises account for a high proportion of domestic services and assume relational exchange. This study suggests a new concept of Being Trusted Perception in improving the firm performance. Previous study focuses on my trust in the other party and my perception of the other party’s trust tends to be somewhat overlooked. This is because it is based on the premise that the degree of the trust of the other party and the one recognized by the other party is the same. However, due to various reasons, the magnitude of trust that subjects and objects perceive can be different. Therefore, this study divides the dimension of trust perception into credibility and benevolence aspects, and confirms that Being Trusted Perception is connected to corporate performance. According to the results, the management mechanisms for improving credibility and benevolence trust perception are different and relationship velocity moderates the relationship between Being Trusted Perception and firm performance.

Building trust: The influence of mentoring behaviors on perceptions of health care managers' trustworthiness.

In health care organizations, trust is critical for effective workplace relationships that ensure patient-centered outcomes. Although research has focused on trust in the relationship between patients and clinicians, less is known about what influences workers to trust their managers. An understanding is needed of the specific behaviors that influence health care workers' evaluations of their managers' trustworthiness. Mentoring research focuses on the developmental assistance that a more experienced worker provides to a less experienced worker. Building upon seminal research on mentoring functions, we argue that health care managers can build trust by providing informational (career-related) and interpersonal (psychosocial) support. The aim of the study was to investigate the influence of health care managers' informational and interpersonal mentoring behaviors on workers' perceptions of their managers' trustworthiness and the mediating role of trustworthiness on trust in the managers. Surveys were completed during work hours by 315 health care workers at an acute care hospital and associated clinics in the Midwest. Results showed that managers' mentoring behaviors influenced worker perceptions of their managers' trustworthiness, in terms of ability, integrity, and benevolence. Ability partially mediated the relationship between informational mentoring and trust in managers, whereas integrity and benevolence partially mediated the relationship between interpersonal mentoring and trust in managers. Health care managers can actively build trust through mentoring behaviors that inspire positive assessments of managers' ability, integrity, and benevolence.

HRM bundles and organizational trust

According to the resource‐based view of the firm, a firm can be competitive only if its resources are unique and valuable. Therefore, the good functioning of the internal organization, including good human resource management (HRM) and high levels of trust, is considered to be a strategic issue and a critical source of competitiveness. It is also said that one of the growing challenges for HRM is to build a positive cycle of trust in the organization. This study aims to show the effects of HRM bundles, also known as HRM clusters, on various dimensions of organizational trust (interpersonal and impersonal). Confirmatory factor analysis, cluster analysis, and analysis of variance are used to analyze data from 14 organizational units in the information and communication technology and forest industries in Finland. The major finding is that among all the dimensions of organizational trust, only trust in other employees' competence and benevolence differs among the three HRM clusters.

Moderating Price Sensitivity of Low-Uncertainty Daily Eco-Friendly Products: Creating Benevolence Trust and Reducing Uncertainties

ABSTRACTFor low-uncertainty daily eco-friendly products like eco-shampoo, consumers' willingness to pay a higher price can be the biggest barrier to hinder their purchase. In this research, we propose that benevolence trust does have a significant effect in mitigating this barrier. This research also shows that benevolence trust can reduce uncertainties and feelings of anxiety and increase feelings of optimism, symbolic benefits, and perceived price value while adopting daily eco-friendly products. Above all, the research findings show that further reduction of uncertainties plays a key role in driving consumers' willingness to pay a higher price when purchasing low-uncertainty daily eco-friendly products. The findings were also supported by a practical case study.

Relationship quality time: the validation of a relationship quality scale in higher education

ABSTRACTThis study investigated the overall quality of the interpersonal relationship students have with faculty and staff, that is, relationship quality (RQ). In relationship management research, RQ is paramount for the creation of bonds with customers, which in turn is necessary for the sustainability of organizations, that is, continuity and growth. In higher education, it is not only recent changes in funding of education that urge us to further investigate RQ, as students having relational bonds with their teachers and faculty/staff is important as well. These relationships are expected to positively influence students’ college experiences. Although educational literature addresses the importance of student–faculty relationships, little is known about students’ perceptions of the quality of their relationship with their program. The aim of this study was therefore to get a more in-depth understanding of the concept and measurement of RQ within a higher education context. To that end, an existing RQ scale was used measuring five dimensions: trust in honesty, trust in benevolence, satisfaction, affective commitment, and affective conflict. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted on survey responses of 551 students from a Dutch university of applied sciences. Next to the CFA, a small-scale focus group discussion was held to validate the quantitative findings of students’ perceptions on RQ. The findings confirm that the RQ instrument is an adequate instrument to investigate RQ in a higher education context. Additional qualitative findings also suggest that students acknowledge the relevance of RQ and the need for having a good relationship with their faculty and staff.

Investigating the determinants of e-book adoption

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the key factors that affect users’ adoption of e-books using an extension of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) that includes the following factors: environmental concerns, perceived benefits, and benevolence trust.Design/methodology/approachThe authors analyzed survey responses from 343 participants using structural equation modeling to examine the hypothesized relationships in this research model.FindingsThe results show that users’ adoption of e-books is determined by performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, environmental concern, perceived benefit, and benevolence trust.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors restricted this study to consumers’ adoption of e-books. Further studies could examine consumer’s adoption of other mediums, such as cutting-edge information technologies.Practical implicationsThe results suggest that marketers should consider altering their methods of promoting e-books to attract consumers and further affect their usage intention.Originality/valueThis study proposes and tests an extended UTAUT model that includes the additional factors of environmental concern, perceived benefit, and benevolence trust in order to examine the influence of these factors on e-book adoption. The findings are particularly useful for assisting managers to increase e-book adoption.

The role of sales representatives in cross-cultural business-to-business relationships

This study responds to the call for the “internationalization of sales research” by collecting data from 160 international buyers spanning 33 countries and regions. Based on survey data, archival sales records and cultural-distance indices, this research examines the performance-enhancing effect of sales rep-owned commitment as well as its antecedents under varying degrees of cultural distance. Our results show a strong and direct impact of rep-owned commitment, independent of the effect of firm-owned commitment, on enhancing performance indicators including sales volume, importers' purchase share, and importers' future purchase intentions. Moreover, we find two important antecedents to rep-owned commitment: benevolence trust and capability trust. Interestingly, cultural distance moderates the effects of benevolence and capability trust on rep-owned commitment: the larger the cultural distance, the stronger the effect of benevolence trust but the weaker the effect of capability trust. We conclude with theoretical and managerial implications to international marketing research and practice.

Environmental Protection: Essentials/Antecedents of Digital Book Adoption

Encouraging e-book adoption has great contribution towards environmental protection. In this research, we propose, the extension to the more comprehensive new product model, UTAUT, which comprises of four variables i.e. social influence, performance expectancy, effort expectancy and facilitating conditions, by incorporating new variable “benevolence trust”. The finding showed that, in presence of the benevolence trust, all the constructs of UTAUT increased significantly and benevolence trust becomes the most important determinants for predicting e-book purchase. Our findings further explore benevolence trust moderates the application of UTAUT for e-book purchase prediction. All these findings can help e-book providers to formulate effective marketing strategies to make consumers overcome their psychological resistance for using e-book.

An Empirical Study of the Dual Domains Model of Justice and Relationship Quality: Evidence from Taiwan

The study proposes a dual domains model which describes the linkages for various types of justice with satisfaction, trust and commitment in relationships between retailers and suppliers. Important empirical findings are as follows. The dimensional relationship between justice and relationship quality is characterized by a special linkage. Variables in the outcome domain have stronger linkages with variables in the outcome domain (economic linkage), while variables in the process domain have stronger linkages with variables in the process domain (social linkage). The economic chain is distributive justice -> economic satisfaction -> ability trust -> continuance commitment. The social chain is procedural justice and interactive justice -> non-economic satisfaction -> benevolence trust and integrity trust -> affective commitment and normative commitment. This model helps suppliers adopt appropriate justice strategies to solve problems of relationship quality with their retailers, including problems with respect to both outcome and process domains.