Trust plays an important role in business relationships. It is, therefore, one of the most discussed and analyzed phenomena in the literature on business-to-consumer interactions.

Tara Ebert investigates what trust building measures in the banking industry should comprise. She deduces a critical conceptualization of consumer trust from the specific view that consumer theory takes. By means of an extensive trust research analysis, she establishes a complex model which she analyzes empirically. The findings show that reputation and perceived security of a bank are the two key factors in trust building. The author presents new and analytical insights which can be employed to deduce better targeted marketing implications for consumer trust building by banks.

Autorentext
Dr. Tara Ebert promovierte bei Prof. Dr. Manfred Schwaiger am Institut für Marktorientierte Unternehmensführung der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.

Zusammenfassung
Trust, as a key factor in business relationship, cannot be bought or ordered. Also, trust cannot be replaced through control mechanisms. Rather, it is a fragile psychological construct which develops through mainly intransparent reasons. Trust research is, therefore, vital for an analysis of business to consumer relations. The present work is connected with the comprehensive and long continuing scientific examination of trust in and between organizations as well as between organizations and customers. The banking industry serves a field of research in which trust plays a key role. The question is to find out how banks can strengthen customers' trust. The work especially focuses on the question whether customers trust their bank due to performance and service quality or reputation (reputation being defined as the result of experienced and approved performance quality). On the other hand, the work also deals with the possibility that trust depends on entirely different reasons like the trust propensity of each individual. Thus, organizations can only partially influence their customers' trust by their own measures. Based on these aspects, the author formulates the central research question of her work: Which trust building measures should the appropriate policy of a bank consist of? This is a very challenging question as it includes existing long-range trends and traditions as well as experience, publicly communicated values as well as concrete transaction and service experiences of customers including their personal historical backgrounds. The author seeks a comprehensive empirical approach and successfully applies this method to her research question.

Inhalt

Consumer Trust as a Key to Organizational Success.- Trust Model for Analyzing Measures of Trust Building in the Banking Industry.- Research Design and Results.- Discussion, Summary, and Future Prospects.