Dimensions and Levels of Trust: Implications for Commitment to a Relationship

Previous research has found that trust is positively related to commitment in buyer-seller relationships. However, the validity of this finding is questionable because trust has been operationalized in many different ways. For example, prior research has not distinguished among levels of trust (interpersonal or organizational trust) and dimensions or motives of trust (credibility or benevolence). In this study, we distinguish among the levels and dimensions of trust. The results indicate that trust in a sales representative (interpersonal credibility) is more strongly related to commitment than trust in an organization (organizational credibility). In contrast, trust based on organizational benevolence is a stronger predictor of commitment than interpersonal benevolence.     

Customer Participation Behavior in High- Versus Low-Contact Services: The Multiple Roles of Customer Trust

ABSTRACT

In light of the changing roles of customers from service co-producer to value co-creator, the customer participation literature has conceptualized two types of participation behavior: co-production and value co-creation. However, there is a dearth of knowledge concerning both the antecedents of customer co-creation behavior and the outcomes of such behavior in relation to customer-perceived value and loyalty. Anchored in the trust-commitment theory, the present research (a) examines the effect of how a customer's trust in the service personnel could affect his/her cooperative behavior over the service design and delivery processes; and (b) investigates how the potential impact of a customer's trust in service personnel on his/her co-design and co-delivery behavior could be made contingent upon the customer's trust in the service brand and the types of high- versus low-customer-contact service contexts. Filling the aforementioned research gaps, the present research contributes to advance our knowledge of the roles played by trust at different levels of analysis in facilitating customer participation behavior and improving our appreciation of the customer contact service contexts when designing the service organization for maximizing service value and sustaining brand loyalty over time.     

从利益独占到利益分享——中西分享经济理论述评

为解决经济发展动力不足的问题,20世纪80年代,中西经济学家不约而同地提出建立起一种新的利益共享制度来消除传统体制中的利益矛盾,即分享经济的思想。从本质上看,分享制是一种产权分散分布于非人力资本所有者和人力资本所有者的制度安排。分享制虽然旨在提高薪酬的可浮动程度,但它决不仅仅是一种工薪制度。与传统的薪酬相比,利润分享制下的薪酬水平要随着市场条件的变化而变化,让工人的工资与某种能够恰当反映厂商经营的指数相联系,因而能够自动抵制失业和通货膨胀。     

From active participation to engagement in online communities: Analysing the mediating role of trust and commitment

The advent of new media and the internet has brought social media to the fore of all brand communications. Marketers are looking at leveraging social media and all its capabilities to their advantage so as to build and manage customer relationships while also co-creating brand experiences. Online communities are one of the most preferred choices of marketers, from among all the tools and features that social media offers. The present study aims to understand how user’s active participation in online communities is instrumental in influencing their engagement with the community. The above relationship is tested on a sample of 203 respondents, using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM), where trust and commitment are explored as mediators. While trust is found to partially mediate the relationship between active participation and engagement, commitment acts as a full mediator. The influence of personal characteristics (membership duration, gender) is also explored as an ancillary outcome to the study.     

Nurturing the Whole Person: The Ethics of Workplace Spirituality in a Society of Organizations

In a world which can be increasingly described as a “society of organizations,” it is incumbent upon organizational researchers to account for the role of organizations in determining the well-being of societies and the individuals that comprise them. Workplace spirituality is a young area of inquiry with potentially strong relevance to the well-being of individuals, organizations, and societies. Previous literature has not examined ethical dilemmas related to workplace spirituality that organizations might expect based upon the co-existence of multiple ethical work climates, nor has previous literature accounted for the relevance of the cosmopolitan (external, societal) source of moral reasoning in the ethical treatment of workplace spirituality. The purpose of this paper is to address these gaps by articulating two such ethical dilemmas related to workplace spirituality: the “quiet desperation” dilemma and the instrumentality dilemma. Moreover, I propose two theoretical contexts that foster “both-and” rather than “either-or” thinking, thereby mitigating (moderating) the relationships between climate combinations and conflictual aspects of the ethical dilemmas. For the “quiet desperation” dilemma, I propose a person–organization fit perspective to emphasize diversity of individual preferences instead of a managerially prescribed uniformity of spirituality. For the instrumentality dilemma, I propose a multiparadigm approach to workplace spirituality research to avoid the privileging of one research interest over another (e.g., instrumentality, individual fulfillment, societal good). I conclude with suggestions for future research.     

宽带数据链网络协议的分析

介绍了宽带数据链网络特点,分析了美军宽带数据链SCDL、MP-CDL和TTNT等网络中网络协议的应用及其发展方向,研究了宽带数据链网络各层协议的基本要求,提出了宽带数据链网络协议的研究思路.     

顾客参与创新:第三方消费者对产品创新性的感知

作为顾客参与创新的目标消费群体,第三方消费者如何评价顾客参与创新的成果具有重要的意义。文章通过社会认知理论的视角探讨了顾客参与创新对第三方消费者的影响。通过三组实验发现,顾客参与创新会显著促进第三方消费者对产品创新性的感知,这种创新性感知受到第三方消费者对参与创新顾客身份认同的中介作用。同时,第三方消费者与参与创新顾客的关系紧密性以及参与创新过程的透明度会调节顾客参与创新与身份认同感之间的关系,进而影响第三方消费者对顾客参与创新成果感知创新性的评价。其中,第三方消费者与参与创新顾客的关系紧密性越强,其对参与创新顾客的身份认同度越高;顾客参与创新过程的透明度越高,第三方消费者对参与创新顾客的身份认同感越高。     

The trickle-down effect of trust in business-to-business relationships: How can a supplier ensure cooperation from multiple customers?

Abstract

Although several interfirm cooperation studies have expanded the unit of analysis from dyads to triads (networks), there is scant literature focusing on whether and how a supplier’s relationship with a customer influences its relationships with other customers. Individual relationship dyads are not isolated but interact with one another. Particularly, mutual trust in a supplier–customer relationship dyad may influence other customers’ cooperative behavior. This cross-dyadic influence is called the “trickle-down effect of trust.” A hypothesis for the mechanism by which this effect occurs was generated, focusing on the customers’ demand information offerings as a cooperative behavior. The results of an empirical analysis indicate that (1) a supplier’s mutual trust with its primary customer encourages nonprimary customers to offer their demand information to the supplier and (2) the quality of information from customers helps the supplier to make their new product more meaningful.     

Industry,Organizational Age,and Size as Predictors of Organizational Values in the Context of a Transition Society: The Case of Estonian Organizations

ABSTRACT

Over the past 20 years, China and India have emerged as the fastest growing economies in the world. In this context, the authors review, examine, and list the factors that have contributed to the emergence of China and India (referred to as Chindia). The authors compare the antecedents, characteristics, and consequences of their emergence in the global market. This article provides insights for the researchers and multinational enterprises from rest of the world to carry out studies on country analysis as well as foreign market entry modes. Besides, we posit theoretical and testable propositions for future research.     

参与发展:上海构建和谐旅游城市的理论与实践

"旅游促进发展"已成为共识。随着上海都市旅游发展的深入,出现了许多不和谐现象和负面效应,特别是对本地居民利益保护的缺位现象等日益凸现。为了促进上海都市旅游和谐发展,在探析和谐旅游城市构建中引入参与发展理念,具有重要的理论与实践指导意义。     

物流联盟企业间的信任博弈分析

物流联盟是为了达到比单独从事物流活动所能取得的更好的效果而在企业间形成的相互信任、共担风险、共享收益的物流伙伴关系,在物流联盟中建立信任关系十分重要。本文认为,物流联盟企业出于企业利益、企业生存发展等方面的考虑,企业之间存在信任关系博弈,通过重复博弈建立起来的信誉是企业联盟发展的价值资源;物流联盟成员企业只有建立在相互信任的基础上,才能在资源共享、优势互补、共担风险的合作方式下,把握市场脉搏,实现联盟企业共同的目标。     

我国华北地区农民政治参与问题实证研究——基于河北安新县A村的实地调研

农民的政治参与状况直接影响和制约着政治文明的进程。河北安新县A村农民政治参与案例表明,在华北欠发达地区的农村．农村公民的政治参与具有主动性组织化程度较低、政治参与程度和水平较低、政治参与非制度化可能性仍存在的特征。健全农民政治参与的对策,应当从加强农民政治参与制度建设,加强农村社会主义政治文化建设,发展农村经济,提高农民社会地位,早日建立农民利益的政治表达组织等方面入手。     

The Potential Economic Loss to the Oman Economy as a Result of Exporting Unprocessed Fish

This article attempts to estimate the loss in economic activity to the Oman economy resulting from exporting unprocessed fish. Because of the lack of data to compute the necessary multipliers, we use multipliers from other sources. Results show that if fish exported between 2003 and 2007 had been processed in Oman, 479.7 to 829.5 million Rials in economic activity could have been generated. Furthermore, between 2003 and 2007, if all the unprocessed fish exported had been processed locally, between 0.874 and 1.818 billion Rials increase in income could have been generated, with an additional income of up to 1.594 billion Rials through induced effects. Also for every person the fish processing industries could have employed (if all fish processing took place locally) between three to five jobs could have been created economy wide. These results, however, must be taken only as broad indicators because of the lack of multiplier data in Oman.     

众包接包者参与意愿影响因素研究：基于不可观测异质性的接包者类别探索

众包接包者参与意愿的影响因素包括参与动机、发包者因素和平台因素,但不同研究在因素影响强度上尚未达成共识。文章在验证众包参与意愿影响因素模型的基础上,结合有限混合偏最小二乘法和多群组分析方法,解析了不可观测异质性的调节作用,并探索性地识别了接包者细分群体。结果显示,对总体样本而言,外在动机、任务设计、平台环境和网站体验显著影响众包参与意愿;不可观测异质性显著调节参与动机与众包参与意愿的关系,对发包者因素及平台环境与众包参与意愿间关系的调节作用得到部分支持;三个细分群体方案是解释不可观测异质性的最优选择,包括：外在动机驱动型、外因驱动型及内在动机驱动型,不同类型接包者对因素影响强度程度的认知不同。研究结果为组织者清晰地认识接包者和制定更具效度的激励策略提供了启示。     

Making a first impression as a start-up: Strategies to overcome low initial trust perceptions in digital innovation adoption

High failure rates of digital innovations by start-ups indicate that consumers' initial trust perceptions are make-or-break for their survival. Hence, start-ups have to design adequate business models to manage consumers' initial trust perceptions of digital innovations. Five experiments explore how start-ups can signal trustworthiness in order to overcome low initial trust perceptions and boost adoption. We find three specific design strategies of start-ups' digital business models – customer ratings, benefit communication, and revenue model – to be effective to overcome low initial trust perceptions and to increase adoption of digital innovations. The findings demonstrate that initial trust serves as a critical mediator in the relationship between these design strategies and consumers' adoption intentions. Additionally, the chosen revenue model has differential effects on privacy concerns, which mediate the relationship between revenue model and initial trust. The present empirical insights help start-ups to craft business model design strategies for successful digital innovation launch.     

Female Social Networks: Identifying Better Communication Platforms to Advertise Nonprofit Services in Rural Pakistan

Women’s access to nonprofit organizations providing financial and community services is an issue in remote areas of Pakistan. Weak communication of nonprofit services to potential female clientele is a significant barrier to women’s access to nonprofit services. This article examines how personal networks among women in remote areas may improve the information delivery about the women-focused nonprofit projects in Pakistan. The women’s networks also play a critical role in members’ motivating each other to join the services offered by the nonprofit organizations. The study used concepts of network and social capital and current network analysis techniques. Data from three remote locations in Pakistan were analyzed using a 2-mode network analysis, content analysis of nonprofit websites, and face-to-face interviews. UCINET software program identified network routines (centrality measures).

The study found that friends, neighbors, and local schools are significant information sources for women. Most information about income-producing projects came from their spouses. Information about social services came from friends, neighbors, or social gatherings. Husbands have high betweenness centrality indicating high power over women’s access to services. Closeness centrality measures indicate that women are not well connected for exchanging information on nonprofit services.     

Tourism coopetition: An introduction to the subject and a research agenda

This paper aims to verify the current status of the research on coopetition applied to Tourism. In order to overcome the lack of tools for analyzing competitive advantage generated by relational components, this paper suggests the use of the coopetition construct as a methodological tool for analyzing the cooperation in networks for the management of tourism destinations. To that end, we performed a bibliometric analysis on ‘tourism coopetition' in scientific research papers published from 1995 to 2015 and indexed in the Web of Science and SciVerse Scopus databases. This helped us to conclude that coopetition is a behavior representing the key organizational methods of tourism destinations, especially when considering the interdependence and complementarity of this sector; thus, it should be a fundamental topic of tourism research. In this sense, the paper presents a research agenda in order to establish coopetition as key to understanding the behavior of all those involved in tourism at a particular destination.     

Consumer self‐construal and trust as determinants of the reactance to a recommender advice

Commercial recommendation agents (RAs) represent an important type of the decision support systems (DSSs) that are widely used by online retailers and firms. To date, little is known about the factors that shape the user's decision making and reactance toward the recommendations of these agents. Building on theories from psychology and information systems domains, this research proposes that a user's self‐construal and trust are two relevant factors that interact to shape the behavior toward the RA advice. Two studies, the first conducted using potential online customers and the second conducted at a behavioral laboratory, provided support to this proposition. The first study considered RA trust and showed that activating the interdependent self leads users with low (high) trust to exhibit high reactance behavior toward the RA advice. The second study variated trust using trust cues and corroborated the latter finding, while showing no important impact for the psychological reactance trait. As expected, in both studies the reactance behavior of independent users was not affected by trust. These results contribute by underscoring that social interdependence extends to RAs because the role of trust becomes salient when the interdependent self is activated for a user.     

外资进入、劳动收入份额与技能工资溢价——来自2008年服务业企业普查数据的经验分析

运用2008年第二次全国经济普查服务业企业数据,文章实证检验了外资进入对服务业企业劳动收入份额和技能工资溢价的影响。结果显示外资企业存在更高的劳动收入份额,且外资进入程度对当地企业的劳动收入份额存在正向的外溢效应。文章进一步将不同所有制类型与技能劳动力占比的交互项引入工资方程,发现外资企业存在更高的技能工资溢价。我们进一步验证了外资进入对当地劳动力市场技能工资溢价的影响。结果表明,在那些外资渗透率较高、市场竞争相对激烈的地区和行业,外资企业的技能工资溢价现象会产生溢出效应,促使当地企业提高对高技能员工的薪酬待遇。因此,在合理发挥服务业外资进入对收入分配优化效应的同时,也要采取相关措施防止其进一步拉大工资差距。     

Inquiry and the Practice of Theoretical Conversation: Engaging in Dialogue to Elaborate Hidden Connections

Our goal at JBL is not just to provide a forum for theoretical conversation but also to proactively invite more insightful and interactive conversation. As active inquiry and open dialogue are critical to achieving this goal, we discuss the nature of inquiry and argue for developing the skills and conditions required to promote dialogue over discussion. Only through more profound dialogue can we address the challenges of a tumultuous decision‐making environment, advance theoretical understanding, and improve managerial practice. We then introduce “Dialogue,” a new feature at JBL, which will consist of concise statements of alternative perspectives and diverse views. Through Dialogue, we invite members of the supply chain community to join colleagues in a grand adventure of knowledge discovery. We hope you will agree that the quest for understanding is more fun when we travel the path of discovery together.