IntroductionTrust and trustworthiness were showed their importance in society nowadays with accompanying with behaviours of economy, polity and culture (Ben-Ner and Halldorsson, 2010). Especially, these two items were considered as one of core strategies to establish on-line customer’s loyalty in E-marketing. The goal of this post is to explain difference between trust and trustworthiness, and identify which one is better and important.
From the views of definition, the concepts of trust and trustworthiness own a similar mean, which shows an expected exchange of favorite things from one person to another, not guaranteed (Ben-Ner and Halldorsson, 2010). They build a relationship to make sure both of them have advantages.
However, the definitions of trust and trustworthiness have separate meaning in deed. The trust was defined that person “B” was believed by person “A” in process of their cooperation. In detail, the person “B” as a trustee will not reply maliciously toward the person “A”, and will not get benefits from cooperation when person “A” faced a loss situation (Ben-Ner and Halldorsson, 2010). It means that individuals believe other people are credible and responsible.
Furthermore, the trustworthiness demonstrates that person “B” acts a positive and favorably attitude toward demands and expectations of person “A” (Ben-Ner and Halldorsson, 2010). In addition, the more person “B” returns to person “A”, the better trustworthiness they have.
Meanwhile, several previous studies mentioned the trust and trustworthiness, which are two different concepts. Usually, trust appears first. Moorman. Deshpand^,and Zaltman defined trust as a willingness to rely on a partner in whom one has confidence. It is a feeling which is supported by willingness and confidence. Trustworthiness is a moral value that usually considered as a kind of virtue. For example, person A trust B, because B act favorable towards A and never take any benefit from A. Therefore, Trustworthiness only appear when A willing to trust B and confidently believes that B is reliable and has high integrity. In this situation, B has trustworthiness. Trustworthiness can be cemented by fulfilling its responsibilities. Thus a relationship commitment has been established. Both trust and trustworthiness are important to a business to achieve successful relational marketing. Morgan and Hunt (1994) suggest that commitment and trust are the essential factor in relational marketing. They can enhance efficiency, effectiveness and productivity of marketing activities. It is universally known that the successful marketing depend on the co-operative behaviours of all partners. In Morgan and Hunt KMV model, shared value and communications are able to increase the level of trust, and thus create a more stable relationship.
In addition, the significant differrence between trust and trustworthiness is that both of them have their own specific three dimensions. As Becerra (2008:p696) points out: “Trustworthiness is a characteristic of the trustee, while trust is the trustor’s willingness to engage in risky behavior that stem from the trustor’s vulnerability to the trustee’s behavior.” What is more, Becerra (2008) also indicates that trustworthiness is the scale of tust. For instance, there are three dimensions of trust: goodwill trust, predictability trust and competence trust. Moreover, the three dimensions of trustworthiness identified by Mayer et al. (1995) from their analysis of the trust literature as follows: Trustworthiness (0.91)
a. Integrity (0.83)
- This firm has a strong sense of justice.
- We never have to worry about whether this firm will keep to its word.
- The management team in this firm tries hard to be fair in dealings with others.
- Sound principles seem to guide the behaviour of this firm.
b. Benevolence (0.83)
- This firm really looks out for what is important for us.
- This firm is very concerned about our welfare.
- Our needs and desires are very important to the management in this firm.
- This firm will go out of its way to help us.
c. Competence (0.89)
- This firm is very capable of performing its job.
- We feel very confident about this firm’s skills.
- This firm is known to be successful at the things it tries to do.
This firm has much knowledge about the work it does.
(Mayer et al, 1995)
Although the trust and trustworthiness have different dimensions, the dimensions of trustworthiness are corresponding to the dimensions of trust, and the trustworthiness is a valuable scale to evaluate the level of trust.
Turing to the issue of which is important and better, most of the economists have accepted the fact that trust had played an important role in economic performance in a society. Some argued that “trusting society tend to have a stronger incentives to innovate and to accumulate both physical and human capital and as a result grow faster”. But obviously the payoff or monetary return to people who trust others are different from people who are trustworthy.
1) Personal return to trustworthiness tends to be negative in most economic entities while personal return to trust tends to be positive in almost all the economic entities; whether a person trusts others can be determined by Specific instances of the past trusting behaviour while whether a person is trustworthy can be decided by whether he trusts others, so the payoff to the people who is trustworthy depends on whether his or her past individual behaviours are observable. And actually the past behaviours are highly not observable, which means the cost of untrustworthy behaviour tends to be low. So why do people behave in a trustworthy way in a society with a low level of average trust?
2) Personal return to trustworthiness will increase along with the level of trust in an economic entity and can become positive eventually in some entities, while return to trust tends to be stable and is not statistically related to the average level of trustworthiness in an economic entity;
To sum up, exhibiting trust and trustworthiness will behave contrarily in terms of payoff and payoff for being trustworthy will increase along with the level of trust.
In addition, the significant differrence between trust and trustworthiness is that both of them have their own specific three dimensions. As Becerra (2008:p696) points out: “Trustworthiness is a characteristic of the trustee, while trust is the trustor’s willingness to engage in risky behavior that stem from the trustor’s vulnerability to the trustee’s behavior.” What is more, Becerra (2008) also indicates that trustworthiness is the scale of tust. For instance, there are three dimensions of trust: goodwill trust, predictability trust and competence trust. Moreover, the three dimensions of trustworthiness identified by Mayer et al. (1995) from their analysis of the trust literature as follows: Trustworthiness (0.91)
a. Integrity (0.83)
- This firm has a strong sense of justice.
- We never have to worry about whether this firm will keep to its word.
- The management team in this firm tries hard to be fair in dealings with others.
- Sound principles seem to guide the behaviour of this firm.
b. Benevolence (0.83)
- This firm really looks out for what is important for us.
- This firm is very concerned about our welfare.
- Our needs and desires are very important to the management in this firm.
- This firm will go out of its way to help us.
c. Competence (0.89)
- This firm is very capable of performing its job.
- We feel very confident about this firm’s skills.
- This firm is known to be successful at the things it tries to do.
This firm has much knowledge about the work it does.
(Mayer et al, 1995)
Although the trust and trustworthiness have different dimensions, the dimensions of trustworthiness are corresponding to the dimensions of trust, and the trustworthiness is a valuable scale to evaluate the level of trust.
Turing to the issue of which is important and better, most of the economists have accepted the fact that trust had played an important role in economic performance in a society. Some argued that “trusting society tend to have a stronger incentives to innovate and to accumulate both physical and human capital and as a result grow faster”. But obviously the payoff or monetary return to people who trust others are different from people who are trustworthy.
1) Personal return to trustworthiness tends to be negative in most economic entities while personal return to trust tends to be positive in almost all the economic entities; whether a person trusts others can be determined by Specific instances of the past trusting behaviour while whether a person is trustworthy can be decided by whether he trusts others, so the payoff to the people who is trustworthy depends on whether his or her past individual behaviours are observable. And actually the past behaviours are highly not observable, which means the cost of untrustworthy behaviour tends to be low. So why do people behave in a trustworthy way in a society with a low level of average trust?
2) Personal return to trustworthiness will increase along with the level of trust in an economic entity and can become positive eventually in some entities, while return to trust tends to be stable and is not statistically related to the average level of trustworthiness in an economic entity;
To sum up, exhibiting trust and trustworthiness will behave contrarily in terms of payoff and payoff for being trustworthy will increase along with the level of trust.
Conclusion
Trust and trustworthiness are two different concepts. Thus a relationship commitment has been established. Both trust and trustworthiness are important to a business to achieve successful relational marketing. Trust and trustworthiness have different dimensions, however, the dimensions of trustworthiness are corresponding to the dimensions of trust. And trustworthiness is a valuable scale to evaluate the level of trust. Build trust in e-shopping is crucially essential during the process of online business. Consumers are trustworthy in two aspects: reliability and security. To sum up, the trust and trustworthiness are both important in E-Marketing. The business people need make use of Trust and trustworthiness relationship and difference.
References
Becerra, M. (2008)“Trustworthiness, Risk, and the Transfer of Tacit and Explicit Knowledge Between Alliance Partners.” Journal of Management Studies, Vol. 45 Issue 4, p691-713.
Ben-Ner, A. and Halldorsson, F. (2010), “Trusting and trustworthiness: What are they, how to measure them, and what affects them”, Journal of Economic Psychology, No31, Pp 64-79.
Joel, Slemrod. and Peter, Katuák. (2008), “Do trust and trustworthiness pay off?”, The Journal of Human Resources, Vol. 40, No. 3, pp. 621-646.
Morgan, R M and, and S D Hunt. (1994), “The commitment-trust theory of relationship marketing.” Journal of Marketing, July, 20 - 38.
Roger C. Mayer, James H. Davis, F. David Schoorman.(1995)，“An integrative model of organizational trust” The Academy of Management Review, Vol. 20, No. 3, pp. 709-734.
