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The concept of customer loyalty has come to play an important role in established businesses. It is a well-known fact that a higher level of customer loyalty leads to greater company success. As a result, instruments of Relationship Marketing and the role played by trust and the creation of trust are becoming increasingly important. This is also the case with young enterprises: Brinkmann, for example, has ascertained that customer loyalty can contribute to success even in the early stages of company development. However, the role played by trust in this process until now appears to have been insufficiently researched. There is agreement on principle that trust is also important for New Entrepreneurial Ventures. There is, however, a lack of clarity with regard to a suitable concept of trust so that Welter und Smallbone (2006) declare a "need for greater conceptual clarity with respect to the various forms of trust and the interrelationships between them". A series of studies is in fact already available in which theoretical models of trust are discussed; however, the scientific discussion has hitherto particularly lacked a broad empirical validation of the models considered. It would therefore be interesting to recognise which individual factors empirically influence a trust or trust development model in order to derive specific information for the companies involved in different industries or business phases. This is exactly where this dissertation by Gunnar Wiedenfels starts off.
About the author
Gunnar Wiedenfels wrote this dissertation under Prof. Malte Brettel's supervision at the WIN chair of the RWTH Aachen. He works as project manager with an international management consulting firm now.
Summary
Acquiring the first customers is a make-or-break challenge for new ventures. In how far does the trust of a potential future customer in a new venture influence his decision to purchase? How can an entrepreneur convey trustworthiness in order to influence the decision? Gunnar Wiedenfels responds to these questions with an empirical study testing a theory-based model of trust, its drivers, and its effect on purchase intentions. The data sample considers interesting comparisons between industries and business phases of the supplier firm. Interested practitioners will find actionable recommendations on how to present their enterprise most trustworthy to acquire new customers.
