Abstract

The inherent uncertainty, complexity and dynamism characterizing consumer markets make trust a necessary mechanism for consumers and organizations to proceed with business interactions in a confident basis. Stimulated by recent empirical evidence suggesting consumer decision making as inherently being complex and non-linear, we theorize and find empirical support for the existence of linear and quadratic effects of service quality, value and satisfaction on the trust outcome, while controlling for the effects of price perceptions. The extant literature has mainly addressed the bivariate links connecting service quality, value and satisfaction to trust. This is especially the case for the satisfaction-influences-trust directionality and much less for the service quality-influences-trust and even much less for the value-trust relationship. Most importantly the existing trust literature is preoccupied with linear-only terms relationships by-passing the possibility of non-linearities is such relationships. We address these research gaps employing the structural equation modeling framework in the context of grocery retailing. The findings imply that investing resources in service quality and satisfaction programs are necessary but not sufficient conditions for further deepening a trusted relationship. On the other hand, economic value is both a necessary and sufficient condition for further enhancing trust perceptions. Managerial implications and future research perspectives are provided at the end.