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The importance of familiarization: An exploratory study of business trust in the early stages of relationship development
Abstract
Companies are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of building long term relationships with their customers. Yet little is known about how to start and maintain those relationships. One difficulty in studying early interactions is finding a context in which to study them. Early interactions are short in duration, tentative, and confidential. This dissertation utilizes one context which is appropriate for studying early interactions between industrial buyers and sellers--trade shows. Based upon the premise that business people are attending to the trustworthiness or relationship potential of potential partners in early interactions, this dissertation investigates a central subprocess which builds to future interactions: business trust development. Reviews of the negotiation, interorganizational relationship, and trade show literature indicate the importance of the trust development process, and business trust is the central construct in this research effort. Three new scales of business trust which show measurement potential are introduced. Estimates of internal reliability for the multi-item trust scales were acceptable, but construct validity studies are warranted to investigate the meaningfulness of these new measures. The interorganizational distance measures which were developed showed low reliabilities overall. Dyadic data were collected at a regional farm show. Farmers identified and evaluated an exhibitor of their choice. Companies exhibiting at the show were also surveyed, and a limited number of dyadic matches were made. The central hypothesis that inter-organizational distance would be inversely related to business trust was tested for technological, time, geographic, cultural, and social distances. The central hypothesis was not supported. It is suggested that better measures be developed and tested in a more traditional business trade show before the hypothesis be abandoned.
Subject Area
Business administration|Marketing|Commerce-Business
Recommended Citation
Hambley, Diane, "The importance of familiarization: An exploratory study of business trust in the early stages of relationship development" (1994). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9500604.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9500604