Guest editorial

Citation

Harjit Sekhon, D. (2010), "Guest editorial", International Journal of Bank Marketing, Vol. 28 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijbm.2010.03228aaa.001

Guest editorial

Article Type: Guest editorial From: International Journal of Bank Marketing, Volume 28, Issue 1

The purpose of this special edition is to explore the nature of trust in financial services specifically because during the last 18-24 months there has been a perceived lack of it across various national boundaries, as the phrase “credit crunch” became embedded in languages worldwide.

Since the beginning of time, trust, and all it forms, has been a central component of interpersonal relationships and it is viewed as the glue that holds a business relationship together (Berry, 1995). Given the recent turmoil in financial services, trust between the product provider and consumer is likely to be important in helping forge new relationships, as well as maintaining existing ones. The need for trust in financial services is increased, further, because often products are simple variations of each other. Although the same argument can be made towards other industries where simple variations exist, the difference is that in those industries there may be a transfer of ownership and consumers normally don’t have to wait 25-30 years for a product to mature.

As a consequence of the wide-ranging access to the world wide web financial services have developed a presence on that platform and attempted to provide self-service offerings through this distribution channel. As this mode of delivery has become wide spread and embedded it is not entirely surprising that some of the papers in this special edition are focused on trust using this delivery method, rather than the historical route to market.

Adoption of internet banking services in China: is it all about trust – Zhao, Koenig-Lewis, Hanmer-Lloyd and Ward

As new modes of delivery have emerged in financial services over the last two decades, the role and arguably the influence of the traditional bank manager has diminished. One of the most recent modes of delivery has been the emergence of internet banking which itself presents new challenges, because of the range of activities that can be undertaken by the consumer. Clearly, emerging from this work is the premise that trust is an important component in determining expectations and is aligned to the notions of risk and predictability.

The research shows that there is a need to develop trust building activities because of the concerns of consumers. Given the research venue the ability to build trust will probably be impacted by perceptions of on-line safety and so forth.

Offline and online banking – where to draw the line when building trust in e-banking – Yap, Wong, Loh and Bak

Increasingly, as e-banking has become an important cornerstone of any bank’s portfolio, this paper discusses where the line should be drawn in terms of developing trust.

The findings from this paper suggest that quality is more important in building trust than the economic size of the institution, with size only coming into play when a customer assesses reliability prior to purchase, indeed, if service is poor then it will be difficult to build trust.

The implication for the banking sector is that trust is built as a result of traditional banking activities with demonstrations of high service quality because cues about the services will be gained from the delivery within bank network. Importantly, it should be noted that the size of the bank does not automatically lead to trust.

Dimensional hierarchy of trustworthiness of financial services providers – Roy and Shekhar

Given the rapid growth of the Indian economy, and in particular liberalisation of the financial markets, this paper makes an interesting contribution to the debate by taking an existing framework and applying it within a different economic sector.

Until liberalisation in the early 1990s the Indian banking sector was dominated by local banks that had a sleepy image with the banks themselves staffed by local unenthusiastic personnel. However, in recent times the liberalisation of the market has seen the entrance of new private and foreign banks, but as a result of the recent downturn anecdotal evidence suggests the level of confidence has been reduced.

Utilising the work of Ennew and Sekhon (2007), probably as a result of the venue specific nature of the research, this paper identifies different factors of trustworthiness than the original authors. The findings are important because they help provide directions for academic and practitioners alike because of the drivers of trust that help develop and maintain a relationship between a service provider and customer.

Empirical investigation into multi-facet trust in the wealth management context – Sunikka, Peura-Kapanen and Raijas

Unlike the venues in the preceding papers, based on qualitative research, this paper explores the nature of trust in the context of wealth management.

As a consequence of this research, four customer types have been identified, depending on the level of trust and involvement. This research recognises the important role of the financial advisor and how the financial advisor may have two servants, but there is information asymmetry, which results in the financial advisor being in a dominant position.

Recognising the challenges associated with reaching new consumers, there is a need for product providers to focus on policies and training that help financial advisors to build trust. This may involve the implementation of policies that added greater transparency during the purchase process, so that the well being of consumers is placed at the centre of the relationship.

Conclusions

The recent turbulence of the financial services sector has highlighted its potential impact on the well being on a given economy. Relationship management and by implication the loyalty of consumers is based on the premise that the product provider is worthy of being trusted, particularly given that some products may not mature for 25-30 years. The papers in this special edition set in different venues show that there are potentially different determinants of trust that may be relevant, dependent on the venue and contextual setting of the research.

The implications of the studies in this edition are profound for practitioners because it is apparent that trust is earned by the product provider through a series of interaction and that building trust is an institution activity. However, the research papers also show that the precise activities are likely to be context and venue specific.

Dr Harjit SekhonCoventry Business School, UK