Factors Affecting Trust in Market Research Relationships

TLDR

Trust is essential for facilitating exchange relationships in market research. The study proposes a comprehensive theory of trust in market research relationships. The theory identifies individual, interpersonal, organizational, interorganizational/interdepartmental, and project factors that determine users' trust and is tested with 779 participants. Interpersonal factors—such as perceived integrity, willingness to reduce uncertainty, confidentiality, expertise, tactfulness, sincerity, congeniality, and timeliness—are the strongest predictors of trust, with additional organizational, cultural, power, and customization factors also influencing trust consistently across relationship types.

Abstract

Building on previous work suggesting that trust is critical in facilitating exchange relationships, the authors describe a comprehensive theory of trust in market research relationships. This theory focuses on the factors that determine users' trust in their researchers, including individual, interpersonal, organizational, interorganizational/interdepartmental, and project factors. The theory is tested in a sample of 779 users. Results indicate that the interpersonal factors are the most predictive of trust. Among these factors, perceived researcher integrity, willingness to reduce research uncertainty, confidentiality, expertise, tactfulness, sincerity, congeniality, and timeliness are most strongly associated with trust. Among the remaining factors, the formalization of the user's organization, the culture of the researcher's department or organization, the research organization's or department's power, and the extent to which the research is customized also affect trust. These findings generally do not change across different types of dyadic relationships.