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India’s retail sector is going through a significant transitional period with the internet as a new distribution channel becoming more common. Given the barriers to adoption, the purpose of this paper is to understand the role played by trusting beliefs when engaging with an online retailer. In the Indian market, online vending is expected to increase at a rate of 35 per cent per annum, and by understanding trusting beliefs retailers will be able to develop their market share by developing appropriate and/or innovative strategies.

The work is based on a sample of more than 200 internet customers in India. In understanding the data and the relationships that emerged from the modelling, the authors used a range of tools to analyse the data, including CFA and structural equation modelling. The authors also used descriptive statistics to provide a holistic overview of response profiles.

The study reveals that trusting beliefs are negatively influenced by an uncertainty avoidance culture and positively influenced by a firm’s image and a customer’s price awareness. Moreover, purchase intentions (PIs) are significantly enhanced by trusting beliefs in an online environment. Hence, it leads us to conclude that PIs can be augmented by facilitating and ensuring good quality service by placing special emphasis on timeliness, accuracy and conditions of the order, security and privacy paradigms, aftersales services, etc.

As can be seen, the internet is an emergent tool for retailers in India. By understanding trusting beliefs, retailers will be able to better understand customers’ behaviour and thus design management strategies accordingly. Although this is likely to take more than a decade, as internet retailing becomes embedded it may have a detrimental effect on the historical channel to market, thus altering the country’s retail landscape which is currently dominated by small retailers.

The work’s findings are insightful for those seeking to maximize the opportunities presented by the internet as a channel to market. The works shows how the channel is influenced and thus how it can be managed. In making the contribution the authors provide guidance in terms of operational activity to engage with potential customers.

This paper examines trusting beliefs when using the internet as a channel to market and in doing so it makes a new contribution because it establishes links with culture and other factors. For the research venue the authors use a developing market and therefore the findings are applicable to markets with similar characteristics.

The purpose of this paper is to examine organisational learning as a mediator among small-scale manufacturing enterprises (S-SMEs) which comprise the majority of economic activity in an emergent/developing economy. This study offers further understanding regarding the mediating role of organisational learning in developing world economies, due to its potential regional influence.

A cross-sectional survey of Indian S-SMEs was undertaken from the District Industrial Center. The study employed a systematic sampling technique to contact owner/managers. Overall, 204 S-SMEs owners/managers participated in the study and 192 usable survey instruments were received.

The study offers novel insights to the following questions. First, the factors that prompt entrepreneurial orientation to achieve superior business performance, i.e. the antecedents of entrepreneurial orientation? The results reveal competitor orientation is an antecedent of entrepreneurial orientation that leads to an S-SME’s business performance. Second, the outcomes of entrepreneurial orientation, i.e. the consequences of entrepreneurial orientation? The study reveals organisational learning and business performance are the corollary of entrepreneurial orientation. Third, the examination of whether organisational learning mediates the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and business performance? The findings found the effects of entrepreneurial orientation on business performance are, in part, mediated by organisational learning.

Three study limitations are recognised. First, other strategic orientations, including technology orientation, production orientation and selling orientation are not included. Second, other constructs have a potentially significant relationship with market and entrepreneurial orientation, such as organisational capabilities, innovation and social context, were not considered. Third, the study is industry-sector specific and does not consider alternative sectors which also may play a potential role in economic development.

This study enhances the existing S-SME literature by identifying factors contributing to entrepreneurial orientation and its repercussions on business performance. For S-SMEs it adds credence to the role played by organisational learning in mediating the link between entrepreneurial orientation and business performance which potentially encourages owner/managers to dedicate increased time and resources towards creating and maintaining a conducive learning environment. The results support entrepreneurs in acknowledging the importance of competitor orientation during the emergence and development of entrepreneurial orientation, specifically in emerging economy contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the cultural assimilation influence on family purchase decision making of Chinese immigrant families in New Zealand, and in Chinese families living in China.

The data were collected from 200 respondents. In total, 100 families have been chosen from each of these countries. The data were collected by the snowball sampling method across 11 different products and four decision-making stages.

The results of this research show that cultural assimilation does have an influence on parental perceptions of teen's influence on family decision making. Chinese immigrants' teenage children in New Zealand were perceived as having more influence within the family than their peers in Chinese families living in China.

The research used a sample size of only 100 respondents from each country. Furthermore, it used snowball sampling and mid-income group families only.

These findings help marketers to gain a better understanding of the influence of cultural assimilation, and use specific marketing communication and promotion strategies.

The paper empirically demonstrates that Chinese parents living in China and Chinese immigrant parents living in New Zealand perceive their children's involvement in family purchase decision differently. Chinese immigrant parents perceive that their children are becoming assimilated with New Zealand culture. This is the first ever study done on Chinese Immigrant families living in New Zealand and Chinese families living in China by collecting and using the cross-culture data from New Zealand and China.

The purpose of this study is to identify the underlying dimensions of trustworthiness of financial service providers in the Indian retail banking sector and to model trustworthiness as a set of second‐order factors. The study replicates and extends the work of Ennew and Sekhon in the Indian context.

Using the trustworthiness scale developed by Ennew and Sekhon this study identifies six first‐order factors of trustworthiness for retail bankers in India using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Then the study modeled trustworthiness as a set of three second‐order factors using second‐order confirmatory factor analysis.

The first‐order factors obtained for trustworthiness of retail bankers are customer orientation, integrity and honesty, communication and similarity, shared values, expertise, and ability and consistency. The second‐order confirmatory factor analysis resulted in three higher order factors namely, competency, openness and benevolence.

The various dimensions of trustworthiness should be viewed as levers for improving a bank's trustworthiness in the minds of its current customers. At the same time, these dimensions will help them in reflecting an image of trustworthiness in the minds of its potential customers. Establishment of trustworthiness as an element of corporate image will provide competitive advantage to the service firms and improve their financial performance.

The research tests for the reliability and validity of the trustworthiness scale of Ennew and Sekhon. This study provides a window to the dimensions on which retail bank customers in an emerging economy such as India perceive a retail bank's trustworthiness. Furthermore, this study is an attempt to model trustworthiness as a set of second‐order factors.

The purpose of this paper is to study the many manifestations of trust in the wealth management context in Finland. This empirical paper examines and contrasts how trust is perceived by financial experts and consumers in wealth management in general, and in the investment context, in particular.

Qualitative methods, focus group discussions and interviews were employed.

Financial experts and consumers emphasised different facets of trust. The level of trust towards financial service providers and financial advisors, and the level of involvement in investing served to differentiate the consumers into four distinct groups. These are presented and discussed.

Although the methods utilised were purely qualitative and the study was limited to Finland, the results offer interesting and new scientific knowledge about perceived trust, and how it can be used in market segmentation and developing customer service.

The four quadrant matrix can assist financial companies in building customer relationships and in improving customer service.

Qualitative research provides insights into consumers' thoughts that are difficult to obtain with quantitative data gathering and analysis. In this study, consumers expressed their opinions and thoughts in their own words. Furthermore, the dyadic comparison of opinions of consumers with experts' views about consumers' motives and behaviour contributed to a deeper understanding of the relationship between consumers and financial service providers.

The purpose of this paper is to develop and tests a service excellence model, thus providing a detailed understanding of the key antecedents of service excellence, from a customer ' s perspective. The model presented in this paper is rooted in cross-disciplinary literature and tested amongst customers of UK retail banking services.

Following a systematic approach to scale development, the paper draws on survey data from 260 consumers of retail banking products, with the data collected on national basis in the UK.

The theoretical framework was evaluated using a structural approach. Of the hypothesised antecedents, innovation has the greatest impact on service excellence while reputation the least, as far as customers are concerned.

The research was limited to one research domain, i.e. UK retail banking, and thus it is reasonable to hypothesise that other aspects of service excellence will be more or less relevant for other types of financial services or in other geographic regions.

Given the challenges faced by the retail banking sector, there are implications for practitioners because the authors identified the key antecedents of service excellence. The antecedents can be used by practitioners to help demonstrate excellence on their part and they could differentiate what are homogenous services at a time when the retail banks are going through a period of recovery following the crisis within the sector.

This work complements the understanding of service excellence and provides insight for scholars and practitioners by modelling services for a specific service sector.

This empirical paper aims to assess the multi-dimensional nature of trust in service relationships. Although trust is deemed to be important for managing service relationships there is a dearth of research looking at its multidimensional nature outside of Western markets.

The study is undertaken in three countries: UK, Hong Kong and India (September to November 2010). The sample consists of more than 300 sample members from across the three countries with an approximately even split between each.

The findings show that cognitive trust does not significantly impact affective trust, but the other relationships in the model are supported. Customer ' s disposition to trust impacts both cognitive and overall trust.

The research provides direction for services marketing scholars and practitioners, but there are limitations because not all types of financial institutions are evaluated.

The practical implications of this work are profound given that transnational operations of most retail banks. Understanding trust dimensions aids relationship managers to devise differentiated strategies to build/re-build and maintain long-term trust relationships with customers.

This work extends the understanding of relationships, but by rooting the work in retail banking it provides new insights for academics and practitioners. For service marketing scholars, this study calls into question some of the multi-dimensional nature of trust and for practitioners it can help aid strategy development.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of retailer trustworthiness in driving customer trust and the subsequent impact on loyalty. The authors position trustworthiness as a mediator in the link between retail strategies and the development of trust. They model customer loyalty to the service retailer as a function of the trust created through trustworthy perceptions.

The authors validate their model using 420 survey responses from customers in a service retail setting. Nine research hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling. Alternate models are estimated, and the results provide support for the theory-based trustworthiness mediation model.

Trustworthy behaviors first build trustworthiness, which then translates into customer trust and ultimately has a positive impact on both behavioral and attitudinal loyalty.

The research highlights the importance for retailers to signal their trustworthiness to build customer trust and loyalty. Researchers should measure trustworthiness perceptions when examining customer relationships and managers should plan strategically to develop both trust and trustworthiness with their customers.

This study is one of the first to investigate the mediating effect of trustworthiness on customer loyalty in service settings. While past research has investigated dimensions of trustworthy behaviors, none has included a measure of trustworthiness perceptions and consumer trust in the same theoretical model. The results of the research provide important insights for both researchers and managers.