The Roles Of Trust And Confidence In Customer Citizenship Behavior

Abstract

Literature related to the service-dominant logic and customer value highlight customer advocacy (customer-to-customer communication aimed at promoting and defending products and services) and feedback (positive, negative, and neutral customer-to-company communication) as significant theoretical constructs and managerial objectives.  Trust, the notion that a relational partner is dependable and can be relied on to deliver on its promises, has received strong support as an important element in marketing relationships and may be important to understanding customer advocacy and feedback.  Scheer (2013) argues that trust has been confounded with confidence in the literature and that by disentangling trust and confidence we not only gain conceptual clarity but may also shed new light on trust-related antecedents and consequences.  Marketing scholars conclude that there is still much to learn about trust and the underrepresented construct, confidence, in relational exchange.  The present study addresses issues raised in the literature as well as gaps in our understanding related to the role of perceived trustworthy behaviors (benevolence and competence) and confidence in customer advocacy and feedback behavior in a B2C retail setting.  Specifically, we examine the interaction of benevolence and competence trustworthiness dimensions as well as the mediating influence of confidence as precursors to customer advocacy and feedback behavior.  Model relationships are supported which hold implications for future marketing research and practice related to customer citizenship behavior.