Trusting Beliefs and Loyalty in B-to-B Self-Services

Abstract

Purpose: Services in the business-to-business (B-to-B) marked are increasingly being delivered through self-service technologies (SSTs). Research shows that lack of online trust is a major barrier for adoption of self-services. This knowledge has motivated many studies to integrate constructs from the technology adoption model (TAM) with trust. However, these studies have mainly operationalized trust as a unidimensional construct, hence ignoring unique antecedents and consequences of specific trusting beliefs. The purpose of the current research is to test two types of trusting beliefs in a firm, ability, and benevolence, and their relationships with established constructs from the technology adoption literature. We also test trusting beliefs in the SST’s reliability and customers’ perceptions of SST support as potential antecedents of trusting beliefs in the firm.Methodology: The authors distributed an electronic survey among users of self-service technology in a B-to-B market. Hypotheses were tested using SEM in Mplus.Findings: The data show that both ability and benevolence are positively associated with loyalty toward the SST. The authors demonstrate that perceived ease of use has a positive influence on ability, but not on benevolence, whereas perceived SST support is a stronger predictor of benevolence than ability. Trusting beliefs in the SST’s reliability influences SST loyalty directly, as well as indirectly through beliefs about the company’s ability and benevolence.Research implications: This research shows that different trusting beliefs have unique antecedents and consequences. Our study should encourage further research into antecedents and consequences of specific trusting beliefs.Practical implications: Managers of SSTs should focus on both ability-based and benevolence-based trusting beliefs to create loyalty towards the self-service. Enhancing technical aspects of a self-service, such as its ease of use, is suitable for creating ability beliefs, whereas providing SST support may be more effective in terms of creating benevolence beliefs.Contribution of the paper: In general, the study provides new insight into the trust-TAM model by distinguishing between different types of trusting beliefs. By including SST support and trusting beliefs in the SST’s reliability, the research extends our understanding of how business customers form trusting beliefs in a service provider.

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