Van Riel, Steve (2021) Trusting fast and slow : a consulting model for businesses seeking to increase consumer trust, based on evidence of dual cognitive processes in consumer trust judgements and the adaptation of risk-based trust measurement to a consumer context. DBA thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

Businesses need consumers to trust that their products and services will live up to expectations and trust their corporate claims to, for example, protect customer data or act sustainably. A rich literature in economics, marketing, management and behavioural science offers models of trust-building and potential interventions, but little practitioner guidance on how businesses should build trust in different situations. Moreover, ways of measuring trust differ across the literature: interpersonal trust research uses risky games to measure trust, but research with consumers relies on risk-free surveys.

In Study 1 a novel risk-based measure of consumer trust is developed and used by 2,042 UK consumers to measure trust in nine companies across three sectors. For eight of these companies, the new measure leads to different conclusions than those reached using a standard measure. Trust correlates strongly with positive affect on the standard measure, but not on the risk-based one.

A theoretical framework based on a dual process model of cognition explains why this correlation should change for the two different measures. It predicts that a relevant but complicated reason to trust a business, its highly competitive environment, will increase the risk-based measure of trust, but not on the standard measure. It also predicts that an irrelevant reason to trust a business, its simplicity, will do the opposite. In Study 2, pre-registered hypotheses in line with this proposal are largely supported in an experiment involving 1,762 UK consumers.

Based on these findings, a consulting model is proposed which advises businesses to consider the cognitive process that consumers use when they form trust judgements. While specific contexts vary, this model advises that when consumers are using fast processes businesses should focus on heuristic trust-building interventions, while, when consumers are using slower processes, businesses can deploy more complex and nuanced evidence of their trustworthiness.

Item Type:	Thesis or Dissertation (DBA)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HF Commerce
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Customer relations -- Management, Customers -- Attitudes, Trust
Official Date:	May 2021
Dates:	Date Event May 2021 UNSPECIFIED
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Warwick Business School
Thesis Type:	DBA
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Chater, Nick
Sponsors:	Teneo (Firm)
Format of File:	pdf
Extent:	321 leaves : illustrations (some colour)
Language:	eng

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