This dissertation examines the role of different types of salesperson behaviors on building and managing customer equity drivers. It is proposed that customers develop positive attitudes towards different value drivers through developed trust by different salesperson behaviors. Specifically, it is hypothesized that customer trust effects customers’ perceptions of brand value, product value and relationship value; the customer trust in turn is affected by different salesperson behaviors, namely, adaptive selling, customer oriented, selling oriented and un/ethical behaviors. Thus, this dissertation integrates selling behaviors literature with customer equity literature. This dissertation builds on past literature and proposes a conceptual model using nine different constructs representing three broader constructs, Selling behaviors, Customer trust and Customer equity drivers: Adaptive selling behavior, Selling orientation – Customer orientation (SOCO) behaviors and Un/ethical selling behavior, Customer trust with salesperson and selling firm, Value equity, Relationship equity and Brand equity. Descriptive research design is used for investigating the role of customer trust as a mediator in the relationships between selling behaviors and customer equity drivers. The research design uses a dyadic sampling design where data for independent variables, selling behaviors and customer trust, is collected from insurance customers in St.Louis metropolitan area and the data for dependent variables, customer equity drivers, is collected from insurance salespeople. Structural equation modeling is used to analyze the data. The results support the mediational role of trust in the relationship between selling behaviors and customer equity drivers. They also support the hypothesis that different selling behaviors have different effects on customer equity drivers. This research provides significant theoretical and managerial implications. It provides the existing body of literature with a different perspective on customer equity management. Managerially, it provides newer insights to sales managers of the effects of relational selling behaviors. This research also introduces a newer way to investigate selling behaviors by using a second order construct, relational selling behavior.

As the use of e-commerce websites continues to increase, and with cybercrime on the rise, trust in a website has become an important issue. Hence, online stores invest time, money and effort in their website design; they must design websites in a manner that creates a strong bond of trust between consumer and retailer. This thesis examines the relationship between web design features and trust while taking into consideration the cost of the items. Web design features were considered and classified into 5 dimensions: (1) Graphic Design, (2) Structural Design (3) Content Design (4) Social Cue Design and (5) Perceived Security. Three methods were used to study this relationship. The first was an online survey of the features of websites that generated trust. The survey specifically addressed the issue of item cost. The second was an experimental manipulation of web design features and item cost. Participants were asked to directly contrast four different website designs so to determine which features matter more to trust. Item cost was an explicit part of the manipulation, comparing the same websites promoting an expensive and an inexpensive item. The final task was a structured interview. Generally, it was found that different features did affect trust. Features that fell within the category of graphic design dimension were the least important while features classified as content design dimension were the most important. However, features from every category mattered. The effect of item price was more ambiguous, but some features mattered more for inexpensive items (a convenient layout for fast product selection) whereas other features tended to be more important for expensive items (i.e., product information and detail). This study also discovered (through the interview primarily) that interactivity in a website is a relatively new feature that has an affect on consumer trust. The type of interactivity varied as a function of item cost. / Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Electronic Commerce

Thesis (D. Min.)--Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, 1989. / Includes indexes. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 242-249).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, 1989. / Includes indexes. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 242-249).

Thesis describes the use of English trusts in commercial environment. First part defines the concept of trust, elements of trust and various types of trusts. Second part defines different commercial situations where trusts may be used and advantages of the use of trusts for commercial people. Third part considers chosen institutes in the Czech laws, which have some common features with trusts.

ABSTRACT Trust is a central component in leadership and has been shown to be associated with employee commitment, motivation and performance. The phenomenon has been investigated at the organisational level and there have been previous studies of trust within the manager/subordinate relationship. However, research in this area within the South African environment has been limited. The present research investigates the trust displayed by employees in relation to their immediate managers and explores this relationship from a gender perspective. As women are still not well represented at management level and as perceptions of male and female managers tend to differ, the purpose of this study is to determine whether perceptions of male and female managers differ in terms of trust. The aims of the study are to assess whether there are differences with regard to the trust that employees place in managers of differing gender, as well as to assess whether there are differences in the trust displayed by employees of differing gender. The methodology of the study is based on analysis of questionnaires distributed within a large company in the retail environment. The instrument used is a Trust measure developed by Daniel McAllister (1995). Initial analyses were undertaken to establish Cronbach Alphas on both sub-scales of the Trust measure. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted to establish whether responses to the questionnaire loaded on the same subscales identified in the original McAllister study. The main analyses were then carried out using t-tests and Analysis of Covariance, in order to control for a number of potentially confounding variables in the study. The results indicate that males and females display an equal propensity to trust. In addition, male and female managers are viewed no differently in terms of trustworthiness. There are also no significant trust differences when same gender relationships were compared to cross gender relationships between managers and employees. However, manager age and the length of time that the employee knows a manager were found to be significant covariates.

No description available.

No description available.

Yes / Although the success adoption of e-government contingent upon citizens' trust and their willingness to use it, little consideration has been paid to explore the adoption of e-government from citizens' trust perspective. This paper provides a critical and systematic review of the current literature on citizens’ trust in e-government, with a particular focus on the most critical factors influencing citizens’ trust in respect of the adoption of e-government. The extant literature was identified through six electronic databases, from 2000 to 2014. Academic articles were reviewed if they contained a relevant discussion of the antecedents or factors influencing citizens’ trust in e-government adoption. The findings of this review reveal that several studies have been conducted in the area of trust in e-government (particularly trust in government and trust in the internet) with limited consideration to citizen’s aspects of trust (such as personality, culture, gender, experience, education level, beliefs and value systems). Based on the findings of the review, a conceptual framework is proposed by developing the updated DeLone and McLean IS Success Model to establish a framework which presents the antecedents of trust in e-government adoption.

Yes / The growing popularity of multi-agent based approaches towards the formation and operation of virtual organizations (VO) present over the Internet, offer both opportunities and risks. One of the risks involved in such community is in the identification of trustworthy agent partners for transaction. In this paper we aim to describe our trust model which would contribute in measuring trust in the interacting agents. Named as TruMet, the trust metric model works on the basis of the parameters that we have identified as relevant to the features of the community. The model primarily analyses trust value on the basis of the agent¿s reputation, as provided by the agent itself, and the agent¿s aggregate rating as provided by the witness agents. The final computation of the trust value is given by a weighted average of these two components. While computing the aggregate rating, a weight based method has been adopted to discount the contribution of possibly un-fair ratings by the witness agents.