This document summarizes a research article on trust in relationship marketing in the healthcare industry. The article presents a conceptual model that identifies several variables that influence patient trust in healthcare providers. An empirical study was conducted to test the model, with results showing that a healthcare provider's characteristics like size and reputation positively impact patient trust. Additionally, willingness to customize services, sharing confidential patient information, and medical staff expertise were found to significantly determine patient trust. The research also found that trust in medical staff can be transferred to trust in the broader healthcare organization.

1. International Journal of Management (IJM), – 6502(Print), ISSN 0976 – 6510(Online)
International Journal of Management (IJM), ISSN 0976
Volume 1, Number 2, July - Aug (2010), © IAEME
ISSN 0976 – 6502(Print), ISSN 0976 – 6510(Online) IJM
Volume 1, Number 2, July - Aug (2010), pp. 14-19
© IAEME, http://www.iaeme.com/ijm.html ©IAEM E
TRUST IN RELATIONSHIP MARKETING
Bhuvaneswari.Gowthaman
Research Scholar
Sathyabama University, Chennai
E-Mail: bhuvana_jk20@yahoo.com
Rau.S.S
Research Supervisor
Sathyabama University
Chennai-India
ABSTRACT
Trust is a critical factor fostering commitment in relationships between service
providers and customers. The presence of trust improves the chance of successful service
performance. A lack of trust often results in inefficient and ineffective performance. The
importance of trust as a variant of successful relationship marketing has while
distinguishing two targets of trust, the service provider and receiver, an empirical
verification indicates that several variables influence trust formation in the receiver and
that trust can also be transformed from the receiver to the seller.
Keywords: Trust, Service - provider, Receiver, Relationship marketing
INTRODUCTION
Trust can be defined as “the belief in the integrity, honesty and the reliability of
another person” (Dwyer and Tanner, 2002). In general, trust leads to relationship
commitment which is what marketers are striving to achieve. Trust is a key element for
relationship success and tends to be related to a number of elements such as competitive
advantage and satisfaction (Ratnasingam & Pavlou, 2003) in addition to commitment.
While distinguishing, these two targets of trust (servive provider and receiver), focus on
the importance of trust as a condition of successful relationship marketing. The literature
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2. International Journal of Management (IJM), ISSN 0976 – 6502(Print), ISSN 0976 – 6510(Online)
Volume 1, Number 2, July - Aug (2010), © IAEME
review based on Doney and Cannon (1997) research, presents the conceptual model that
identifies several variables that can influence trust development.
A .TRUST TOWARDS A SERVICE PROVIDER
Characteristics of the provider and reputation of the service provider are vital. The
reputation has been defined as the public information concerning “the merit of trust”
(trustworthiness). A favourable reputation puts in value the hospital’s credibility
(Ganesan, 1994) and encourages them to establish relationships.
H1: Patient’s trust influences positively service provider's reputation.
B. HOSPITAL SIZE
The Hospital size can be defined while underlying many indicators like the annual
turnover, the number of employees, the number of patients, as well as hospital's
investments (Doney and Cannon, 1997, Silem, 1994; Matri Ben Jemaa and al, 2006).
They proved empirically that more the size of the hospital more the patients consider that
it deserves trust. Thus, we can consider hospital size as a trust determinant.
H2: Patient’s trust is positively associated to hospital's size.
C. HOSPITAL AND PATIENT RELATIONSHIP IN INVESTMENTS
A hospital’s investment is considered as particular or specific if it looses its value
when the relationship is broken. These investments can be equipments, machines,
facilities and even employee’s particular expertise.
H3: The eagerness of the hospital to make specific investments is positively associated to
the patient’s trust.
D. DURATION OF RELATIONSHIP
The duration refers to the period of time patients and hospital have been in
contact without considering the interaction frequencies. Dwyer and al (1987) affirm that
through time, the experience with the hospital increases and the provider – receiver
converges on leaving behind deep disagreements. Such periods provide to the two parts a
better understanding of each other what encourages the development of trust between
them. In the same context, Ganesan (1994) demonstrated that the seller–client experience
is positively related to the client perception of benevolence as well as seller's credibility
(the two trust dimensions).
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3. International Journal of Management (IJM), ISSN 0976 – 6502(Print), ISSN 0976 – 6510(Online)
Volume 1, Number 2, July - Aug (2010), © IAEME
H4: Patient trust is positively related to the duration of time they have been in contact
with the hospital.
E. TRUST TOWARDS MEDICAL STAFF
The Doctors present an important role for trust development. The most common
characteristics are expertise and capacity as well as the perceived like ability and
perceived similarity by the patient as done by Doney and Cannon (1997). Expertise can
be defined as a perception of the other knowledge and competence (Ghoshes and al,
2001). Indeed, several authors found that patients see the doctors with more expertise to
worth more trust (Doney and Cannon, 1997).
H5: Patient’s trust is determined by the expertise of the doctors.
F. DURATION OF RELATIONSHIP
By duration of relationship, we designate the number of years during which the
client knew the service-provider. The construction of a long-standing relation becomes a
strategically vital objective (Cravens,1995), and this thanks to advantages generated by
this type of relation (long-standing relationship) as the development of mutual trust as
well as added value (Wood,1995).
H6: Patient’s trust is determined by the duration of relationship with the hospital.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
VARIABLES MEASURE
Used scales have been taken from Doney and Cannon (1997) research. All
variables have been measured while using a Likert on a seven points scale.
SAMPLE DESCRIPTION
The sample frame comprised 200 patients receiving treatments in various
departments of different hospitals.
MEASURE SCALE RELIABILITY
The alpha of Cronbach has been calculated for every scale, the gotten values
provide a good reliability (between 0.64 and 0.94).
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4. International Journal of Management (IJM), ISSN 0976 – 6502(Print), ISSN 0976 – 6510(Online)
Volume 1, Number 2, July - Aug (2010), © IAEME
HYPOTHESES VALIDATION
Hypotheses developed in this survey imply relations of reason to effect. To verify
them we will use the analysis of regression. For this, following indicators were used:
-VIF: Factor of inflation of the variance
-F: The test of Fisher and
- T: The test of Student
ANALYSIS AND RESULTS INTERPRETATION
Results of the regression characteristics of the hospital and Trust towards it
F Sig
12.066 0.000
Coeff B T Sig VIF
Reputation 0.233 2.03 0.034 1.124
Size 0.414 3.24 0.001 1.124
Results of the regression characteristics of the hospital relationship and trust towards it
F Sig t Sig VIF
5.325 0.003
Coeff B
Willingness to 0.312 2.611 0.024 1.123
customise
Confidential 0.403 3.203 0.013 1.011
information
sharing
Length of 2.9081- 2 0.32 0.173 1.126
relationship
Results of the regression characteristics of the medical staff and trust towards him
F Sig
12.066 0.000
Coeff B T Sig VIF
Expertise 0.233 2.03 0.034 1.009
Capacity 0.214 1.24 0.230 1.009
Results of the regression trust towards the medical staff and trust towards hospital
F Sig Coeff t Sig
12.01 0.001
Trust towards medical staff 0.45 3.5 0.001
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5. International Journal of Management (IJM), ISSN 0976 – 6502(Print), ISSN 0976 – 6510(Online)
Volume 1, Number 2, July - Aug (2010), © IAEME
The results confirm the importance of the provider’s characteristics (size,
reputation). These variables appear to be important in different domains as many authors
are unanimous on their effect on client's trust (Ganesan, 1994; Dasguptas, 1988;
Anderson and Weitz, 1989..).It has also been demonstrated that the “Willingness to
customize” is also an antecedent of trust. Indeed this kind of behaviour shows that the
business seller is sincere what makes that he deserves trust. In accordance with the
previous researches, private information sharing is an important variable in the
determination of trust since it gives sign of the good faith and seller's benevolence
(Doney and Cannon, 1997). For the salesperson and in accordance with previous research
results, it appears that their expertise, their discerned likeability as well as the frequency
of their business contacts constitutes keys variables to trust development. To make some
specific investments, play an important role for trust development towards him. It
suggests that to develop and maintain a relation of trust with his customer, the provider
must concentrate his efforts this way regarding staff expertise.
CONCLUSION
Results showed that service provider’s characteristics (size and reputation),
confidential information sharing, as well as his willingness likeability, as well as formal
contact frequency revealed a great importance, what emphasizes the importance of
medical staff’s training either on behavioral level or on product characteristics. Results
also showed that trust generated by medical staff is transferable and it (trust) is developed
differently towards the two targets. This result is very important because it shows that
besides his assets (tangible or intangible), the service provider can develop trust through
his staff.
5. LIMITATIONS AND FURTHER RESEARCH
This work does not constitute a finished study. On the contrary, it only tries to
suggest areas of improvement.
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6. International Journal of Management (IJM), ISSN 0976 – 6502(Print), ISSN 0976 – 6510(Online)
Volume 1, Number 2, July - Aug (2010), © IAEME
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