Thesis (M.B.A.)--Boston University

This research investigated the ability of online video to mediate the development of trust in the e-merchant, against the following objectives: (1) determining the drivers of consumer trust in an online environment, (2) investigating the perception of trust in an e-merchant in the absence of video, (3) investigating the perception of trust in an e-merchant in the presence of video and (4) investigating the impact of video mediated trust drivers on the consumer’s willingness to purchase and recommend the e-merchant. The research recommends that businesses in a ‘clicks’ environment, or those in a mortar & bricks environment that maintain a degree of online presence, would do well to consider the prominent usage of video on their websites as a means of mediating trust between the consumer and the online brand.

Achieving science education goals by teaching a breadth of science is possible, but it requires verbal pedagogies which require trust. However, the lack of trust in teachers is an international problem, leading to suboptimal school performance and other issues. Research concerning the importance of trust in science education is found wanting. To determine which trust factors affected achievement of which science education goals, 96 female yeshiva students in grades 7, 8, 9, and 12 filled out a survey and questionnaire that asked about their perceptions of the effects of their trust-in-teachers factors on their achievement of science education goals. Regardless of subgroup (tier [group of school grades] or learning style), the following science education goals were statistically significantly perceived by participants to be achieved with the presence of the listed trust factors: • Learning Classroom Science: Role, Transferring Knowledge, and Character. • Science Literacy: Transferring Knowledge. • Future Science: Role and Transferring Knowledge. For the following subgroups, the listed trust factors were also valued: Students who learn best by “listening to [their] teacher”: Expertise and Support; students who learn best by “exploring and doing things with [their] physical hands”: Emotional Relationship and Guidance; middle schoolers: Meritorious Service and Emotional Relationship; high schoolers: Guidance. It was also found that age has less predictive power than learning styles or “school blocs” (elementary school, middle school, high school) which are socially-constructed and ignore learning styles. Because of verbal methods’ more ubiquitous application than strictly science-educate-minded pedagogies, if repeated with modification, the Shade Report instrument introduced in this study has implications for students of different demographics (including ethnicities/cultures, sex, school type, and grade), additional learning styles, different science education goals, control factors or intimacy factors rather than trust factors, and teachers if they indicate how students can be more effective students. The present study has provided information regarding which trust factors are perceived by students to achieve specific science education goals. The next possible research step is to more fully examine through appropriate research design how to achieve each of the required trust factors.

[pt] Esta tese teve como objetivo principal propor um modelo analítico que relacione os efeitos dos mecanismos de controle nos processos de formação da confiança entre organizações envolvidas em alianças e parcerias, identificando seus reflexos no desempenho. O estudo buscou preencher uma lacuna na literatura, que na maioria dos casos trata os conceitos como antagônicos ou substitutos e não os relaciona diretamente com o desempenho. Esta pesquisa acredita que são conceitos complementares. A metodologia utilizada foi o estudo de caso, em uma aliança estratégica entre um banco de desenvolvimento (o BNDES) e 20 agentes financeiros em um fundo de aval, que concede garantias para micro, pequenas e médias empresas, com análise documental, entrevistas semiestruturadas e aplicação de questionários com escala tipo likert. Foram analisados os instrumentos contratuais, normativos e mecanismos de controle, a natureza de sua formalização e a percepção quanto a sua aplicação e seus efeitos sobre a dinâmica da confiança em ambos os níveis operacional e gerencial do relacionamento interorganizacional. Os resultados da análise dos contratos, normativos, entrevistas e questionários, indicaram que para ampliar suas operações, o fundo precisou equilibrar uma estrutura de governança com perspectiva estrutural, baseada em controles, com uma estrutura relacional, baseada em mecanismos informais, que gerasse confiança dos agentes financeiros. A principal contribuição deste estudo é esclarecer a relação confiança e controle no desenho de mecanismos de governança interorganizacional. Além disto, o modelo considera o tipo de organização, o nível hierárquico dos respondentes, e relacionamento passado entre as organizações. E finalmente, o estudo propõe uma avaliação de desempenho que considera não só as percepções expressas nas respostas aos questionários, mas também indicadores empresariais. / [en] This thesis aimed to propose an analytical model that relates the effects of control mechanisms in the formation of trust between organizations involved in alliances and partnerships, identifying their effects on performance. The study sought to fill a gap in the literature, which in most cases considers these as antagonistic or substitutes concepts and not directly related to performance. This research believes that these are complementary concepts. The methodology used was the case study of a strategic alliance between a development bank (BNDES) and 20 financial agents in a guarantee fund, which guarantees for micro, small and medium enterprises, with document analysis, semi-structured interviews and application of questionnaires with Likert type scale. The study analyses contractual, regulatory and control mechanisms instruments, the nature of formalization, the perception of implementation and its effects on the dynamics of trust at both operational and management levels of interorganizational relations. The results of contracts, regulatory, interviews and questionnaires analysis indicated that to expand its operations, the fund need to balance governance with structural perspective, based in controls mechanisms with a relational structure, based on informal mechanisms that build financial agents trust. The main contribution of this study is to clarify the relationship between trust and control in the design of interorganizational governance mechanisms. Moreover, the framework considers the organization type, respondents hierarchical level, and the previous relationship between organizations. And finally the study proposes a performance evaluation that considers not only the perceptions from the questionnaires, but also business indicators.

The relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and consumer attitudes has been investigated in previous research; however, empirically there is no studies deliberate the role of consumer ethics in order to achieve the CSR, that is, to achieve greater CSR, there is a need to be accompanied with consumer ethics. Therefore, the emergence of consumer ethical behaviour has brought a new perspective to determining the influences of CSR on consumer attitudes. Based on The Theory of Planned Behaviour and Vitell-Hunt theory, this study aims to examine the link between CSR and consumer ethical behaviour, and its influences on consumer attitudes. In order to address the aim, this study explores the relationship between CSR from the philanthropic perspective, and consumers' ethical behaviour. It also determines the extent to which CSR affects brand trust and consumer affective behavioural attitudes. Finally, it examines the role of consumers' ethical behaviour in influencing consumers' attitudes alongside CSR. To address these objectives, this study adopted positivism research philosophy, using a quantitative survey method. The data were collected from consumers who make purchases from the retail sector in the UK. A self-administered questionnaire was developed based on the previous literature. Then, 500 questionnaires were distributed, of which 350 were completed and used for the final analysis. Multivariate analysis was employed, with the questionnaires analysed using a covariance-based structural equation modelling (SEM) approach. The findings reveal that as hypothesized, CSR 'philanthropy' is significantly associated with consumer ethical behaviour; however, this study reveals a negative relationship between them. This study also hypothesized that philanthropic retailers have an influence on (a) consumer affective attitudes and (b) consumer behavioural attitudes. This study does not support the hypothesized relationship between philanthropy and (a) consumer affective attitudes or (b) consumer behavioural attitudes. However, the study identifies a positive relationship between philanthropy and brand trust. Consumers' ethical behaviour is not statistically significantly related to brand trust or consumer affective attitudes. However, the relationship between consumer ethical behaviour and consumer behavioural attitudes is found to be statistically significant. Moreover, the study demonstrates a positive relationship between brand trust and consumer behavioural attitudes, and that consumer affective attitudes mediate this relationship. This study offers a number of theoretical contributions to the literature on CSR and consumer ethics. First, the important contribution lies in the attempt to explore the relationship between CSR and consumers' ethical behaviour. This study unexpectedly, discovers the negative relationship between CSR and consumers' ethical behaviour. The possible explanation is that when consumers perceive the company to behave philanthropically, they are less likely to evaluate themselves as ethical because they may attribute their ethical behaviour to the company's perceived philanthropic behaviours. This study further highlights the positive relationship between consumers' ethical behaviour and their behavioural attitude. The second contribution lies in the relationship between CSR and consumers' responses. In line with previous studies (e.g. Willmott 2003; Hustvedt 2014; Singh et al. 2012), this study concurs that CSR positively affects consumers' brand trust. However, the relationship between CSR and consumers' attitudes is not statistically significant. Instead, this study highlights the important role of brand trust; that is, based on this finding, brand trust is the key driver of both consumers' affective and behaviour attitudes. Third, this study discovers the partially mediating role of consumers' affective attitude on the link between brand trust and behavioural attitude; which seems to be an essential sub-process regulating the effect of brand trust on consumer behavioural attitudes. This study also has practical implications. Firstly, retailers are recommended to effectively communicate their philanthropic activities to consumers in order to enhance their brand trust. It is particularly important that they also aim at influencing consumers' trust in their brand because it is the brand trust that would positively affect their purchasing decision. The final recommendation is that management should focus their CSR communication on the ethical consumer segment because ethical consumers show strong intention to purchase from a socially responsible company.

Aim: The aim of this work is to study the role that culture plays in business relationships between the Netherlands and Sweden. Further, the effects of time and trust on the business relationships are also investigated. The investigation entails whether there are cultural differences between the two countries and how those differences are managed. Method: The research is conducted by a qualitative approach with the use of primary and secondary data. The empirical study is conducted through semi-structured interviews participated by seven Dutch and six Swedish employees from an organization with business operation in the Netherlands and Sweden. Interviews involve one face-to-face meeting and all others are done through Skype due to time, location and cost constraint. Scientific theory is compared against the empirical findings and the coded themes are discussed in analysis. Results and conclusions: The national culture dimensions of Hofstede are compared with the empirical findings and this study supports that the four national culture dimensions of Hofstede’s; Power Distance, Individualism, Femininity and low and middle Uncertainty Avoidance correspond with the description of the Dutch and Swedish interviewees behavior. These national characteristics are observed to have influence in the cross cultural business relationship between the employees in the Netherlands and the employees in Sweden. The two largest cultural difference are in the way the Dutch communicate compared with the Swedes and the perception on pace of work. Although both parties work in different countries, they interact with each other frequently by phone, Skype and face to face meetings due to the fact that they share common customers. The common customers are managed through the local country operation such as Sweden and also at the headquarters level in the Netherlands. As such, the frequent communication results in the development of a working relationship between the Dutch and Swedish colleagues. The efforts to adapt to each other’s cultural differences further increases the trust level in each other's working method in order to serve their customers better. Suggestions for future research: The limitation of the research is that it focuses on one company which belongs to one specific industry. Therefore integrating participants from different companies within the same industry or across industries could result in a dissimilar result. The shortcoming is addressed by suggesting that for future research, this study should be replicated in different industries in the Netherlands and Sweden. Contribution of the thesis: This research contributes to the improvement of business relationships in multinational companies and managers can implement these improvements. Keywords: Culture, Time, Trust, Adaptation, Business Relationship

The first chapter of this thesis considers a contractual principal-agent relationship in an unstable environment. The players are uncertain whether repeated interaction is possible. I examine the role that the deliberate choice of an incomplete (non-verifiable and unenforceable) contract plays in signalling stability and trust. In this model, contractors may privately observe shocks that force them to end the relationship after the current period. Complete (verifiable) contracts, which are assumed to be feasible, ensure cooperation in compliance with the contract. With incomplete contracts, the players make themselves vulnerable to exploitation by their partners. But if cooperation occurs notwithstanding, the contractors update their beliefs about each other’s willingness to interact again. When the agent observes that her partner and herself are able to continue the relationship, she undertakes a non-contractible, mutually beneficial investment. The second chapter is based on the theory by Hart and Moore (QJE, 2008) that regards contracts as reference points for feelings of entitlement. Parties’ ex post performance depends on whether they receive what they feel entitled to, which is assumed to be the best possible outcome permitted by the contract. Consequentially, there exists a trade-off between contractual flexibility (agreement on a price interval) and rigidity (agreement on a single price). Hart and Moore do not analyse the role that third party contract enforcement plays for parties’ feelings of entitlement, shading on performance and contract choice. I demonstrate that Hart and Moore’s results rely on a number of assumptions that can be challenged when incorporating litigation into the model. They assume that trade is voluntary but renegotiation is prohibited. I argue that either trade is voluntary but renegotiation is possible or courts compel parties to trade according to the contract. In the former scenario, fixed price contracts may not act as reference points and the parties feel entitled to the best possible outcomes from renegotiation. In the latter scenario, contracts may act as reference points because of the option of contract enforcement. However, potential flexibility incorporated in the contract is lost. The third chapter provides an experimental examination of the effect of contract enforcement on contractors’ reference points for feelings of entitlement. Previous experiments by Fehr, Hart and Zehnder (AER 2011) analyse and support the theory by Hart and Moore (QJE, 2008) that contracts are reference points. Both theory and experiments ignore the role of contract enforcement for contractors’ feelings of entitlement. I replicate and confirm Fehr, Hart and Zehnder’s baseline experiment. I also run an additional treatment in which buyers can offer sellers more or less favourable prices than specified in the contract, whereas sellers can request enforcement of contracts as written. I find that contract enforcement matters, without being invoked, for sellers’ punishment behaviour through feelings of entitlement. Without explicit contract enforcement, flexible contracts (agreement on a price range instead of a single price) leave sellers feel entitled to the best possible price permitted by the contract. However, buyers rarely offer such a price which leads to disappointment and punishment. With the option of contract enforcement, sellers feel entitled to the price which the court would enforce, even if it is equally unfavourable than in the no court treatment. The presence of the court provides an outside validation for which prices are reasonable and thereby limits disappointment and punishment.

Bakgrund: Tillit ställer förväntningar på att sjuksköterskan i sin profession ska vara trovärdig mot alla patienter. Tillit inom omvårdnaden ger potential till att utveckla en relation mellan sjuksköterska och patient där sjuksköterskan har en större möjlighet att få fram viktig information som kan vara avgörande för patientens hälsa. Syfte: Att beskriva patienters upplevelser av att känna tillit till sjuksköterskan. Metod: Studien gjordes som en allmän litteraturstudie med systematiska sökningar där resultatet är baserat på 10 vetenskapliga artiklar. Databearbetningen resulterade i fyra kategorier som belyser vad patienten upplever är tillit till sjuksköterskan; Att bli sedd, Att få tid, Att bli respekterad och Att bli hörd. Resultat: Resultatet visar att patienten upplever tillit när hen blir sedd vilket kan bidra till att patienten upplever trygghet och hen känner sig involverad i sin egenvård. Genom att få tid kan patienten känna att sjuksköterskan förstår att ett förtroende inte kan stressas fram. När patienten känner sig respekterad av sjuksköterskan upplever hen sig som mer jämlik vilket får patienten att känna sig betydelsefull. När patienten känner att hen blir hörd fördjupas relationen mellan dem och patienten upplever att förhållandet är ömsesidigt. Slutsats: Tilliten till sjuksköterskan kan vara grunden för hur patienten upplever sitt vårdförlopp. Det kan bidra till att patienten får en tydligare förståelse om den omvårdnad som sjuksköterskan utför. Vidare forskning kring patienters upplevelser av tillit är viktigt och skulle kunna bidra till utveckling inom vården. / Background: Trust poses expectations that the nurse in his profession should be credible to all patients. Trust in nursing provides the potential for developing a relationship between nurse and patient in which the nurse has a greater opportunity to provide important information that can be crucial to the patient's health.  Aim: To describe patients' experiences of trusting the nurse. Method: The study was conducted as a general literature review with systematic searches where the result is based on 10 scientific articles. Data processing resulted in four categories that highlight what the patient experiences is trusting the nurse; To be seen, to get time, to be respected and to be heard. Results: The result shows that the patient experiences trust when being seen, which can help the patient feel safe and feel involved in his or her own care. By getting time, the patient can feel that the nurse understands that trust can not be stressed. When the patient feels respected by the nurse, he experiences more equality, which makes the patient feel important. When the patient feels that they are heard, the relationship between them is deepened and the patient perceived that the relationship was mutual. Conclusion: Trust in the nurse may be the basis for the patient's perception of care. This can help the patient gain a clearer understanding of the nursing care performed by the nurse. Further research on the patient's experience of trust is important and could contribute to development in health care.

Tentando gerar inovações e maior aceitação no mercado, as vinícolas brasileiras têm investido em estrutura física que proporcione uma experiência mais satisfatória do tradicionalmente oferecido pelas redes de varejo. Com o apoio do enoturismo, essas empresas realizam degustações acompanhadas por visitas guiadas em sua propriedade. Contudo, o vinho brasileiro tem sofrido forte concorrência com países como Argentina e Chile. Expostos à concorrência, torna-se necessário que as vinícolas busquem novas alternativas para se diferenciarem. Para isso, as vinícolas buscam maior qualidade e proximidade com os consumidores. Como solução para esse problema, a cocriação possibilita a geração de inovação a partir do envolvimento do cliente. Considerando que a cocriação de valor ocorre a partir das interações das empresas com os consumidores, não é suficiente entender apenas a visão de um dos lados. Para essa investigação, considerou-se os seguintes agentes da cadeia do vinho: a vinícola, os seus intermediários e o consumidor final. Dessa forma, esse estudo teve como objetivo entender quais são os canais adequados para um processo de cocriação de valor na cadeia do vinho. Para tal, fez-se necessária a compreensão de alguns conceitos como relacionamento com o cliente, partindo da Lógica do Serviço Dominante até a cocriação de valor. Abordando, assim, aspectos importantes de quatro modelos conceituais de cocriação de valor. A primeira etapa desse estudo foi qualitativa de finalidade exploratória, para levantamento de informações a respeito de como a vinícola e seus intermediários interagem. A segunda etapa foi quantitativa com finalidade exploratória e foi realizada com os clientes da vinícola Miolo. A vinícola não é o único canal por onde o consumidor consegue obter informações e produtos, sendo assim, foram considerados: uma loja especializada (Vinum) e um e-commerce (Vinhos e Vinhos). A escolha se deu porque esses foram considerados os canais onde as possibilidades de cocriação são maiores. Na primeira etapa desse estudo a técnica de coleta de dados utilizada foi a entrevista em profundidade com um dos responsáveis pela gestão, considerando dois setores da empresa relevantes à essa pesquisa. Na segunda etapa realizou-se um levantamento com 74 consumidores da vinícola. Realizou-se análise de conteúdo na primeira etapa, utilizando-se do software Nvivo. Na segunda etapa realizou-se uma análise descritiva da amostra e testes par verificação de correlações entre as variáveis, a partir do software SPSS. Observou-se que ainda há falhas na comunicação entre as empresas estudadas e seus consumidores, principalmente ao que se relaciona ao diálogo e ao acesso. Ademais, verificou-se que as empresas têm se preocupado menos com questões relacionadas ao planejamento, aprendizagem e métricas. Contudo, observa-se que as três empresas têm feito esforços para se relacionarem com seus clientes, mas as oportunidades de cocriação de valor estão sendo pouco exploradas. / Searching for interaction with customers, trying to generate innovation and greater market acceptance, Brazilian wineries have been investing in an infrastructure able to provide a more satisfactory experience than the one based on purchases at shops and supermarkets. With the support of wine tourism, these wineries hold tastings of some of their products combined with guided tours around the property, showing the customer the wine production method and explaining some important techniques for a better appreciation of the commercialized products. Due to competition with wineries from Argentina e Chile, it is necessary that Brazilian wineries seek new alternatives that will lead to an increased consumer demand of products. For this purpose, the wineries seek greater proximity to customers as well as higher quality. As a solution to this problem, co-creation generates innovation from the engagement of consumers (). Considering that value co-creation happens from interaction between companies and customers, understanding only the consumer vision or the company’s is not enough; an analysis of both must be done. For this investigation, it was considered for the wine productive chain the winery, the intermediary and the final consumer. Two types of intermediaries were considered: shops and e-commerce, since these are the channels with better possibilities for co-creation. Thus, the objective of this study was to understand which channels are appropriate for value co-creation process in the wine productive chain. For this purpose, it’s necessary to comprehend some concepts like relationship with client, from the Service Dominant Logic to co-creation of value. An approach of important aspects of value co-creation conceptual models was made: DART model, from Phahalad and Ramaswamy (2004), Payne, Storbacka and Frow model (2008), Arnould, Price and Malshe model (2006) and Brasil, Santos and Dietrich model (2010). The first stage of this study was qualitative with an exploratory purpose (GIL, 2008) for information survey about the winery and its intermediaries. The second stage was quantitative with an exploratory purpose and was carried out with Miolo winery’s customers. The customer can acquire information and products not only from the winery, so two intermediaries were considered in this study: the e-commerce Vinhos & Vinhos and the wine store Vinum. On the first stage of this study, the data collection technique used was an in-depth interview with the person responsible for the management, considering two important company departments to this research. On the second stage, it was made a survey with 74 winery’s consumers. On the first stage, a content analysis was made using the Nvivo software. On the second stage, a descriptive analysis of the sample and correlation verification test based on the SPSS software were made. It was noted that failures exist in the communication between the surveyed companies and the consumers, mainly related to dialog and access. In addition, it was found that companies are less concerned about issues related to planning, learning and metrics. However, it was noted that the three companies have been making efforts to build a relationship with customers, but the opportunities for value co-creation are not explored enough.

Principals are held accountable for student achievement even though they only have an indirect influence on that achievement. Accountability raises the question about what should be the priority for the principal's attention. The literature supports the existence of a positive correlation between faculty trust in the principal and increased student achievement. Our study considered the appropriateness of representing trust as a two-factor model broken down into components related to how teachers view the skill and the will of the principal. Additionally, our study examined which demographic factors of the school and of the principal affect faculty trust in the principal.This study examined historical data acquired from a large suburban school district in the western United States between 2013 and 2014. The archival data included over 1,700 completed surveys from elementary, junior-high, and high-school teachers of the Omnibus T-Scale survey created by Wayne K. Hoy and Megan Tschannen-Moran (2003).Almost all principals in the study were evaluated higher in terms of skill (competence, reliability, honesty) than in terms of will (benevolence, openness, empathy of vulnerability), and the data set fits a two-factor model of trust. Our findings show no significant association between the principal or school demographics and overall faculty trust in the principal, with the exception of a negative correlation between the principal's level of education and faculty trust in the principal. These findings suggest principals are not at a disadvantage to achieve faculty trust based on principal and school demographic factors.