How do corporate associations influence customer relationship strength? The effects of different types of trust

Abstract

This study uses the term of corporate associations to represent all the information that a person holds toward a specific firm, and differentiates two key sub-dimensions of corporate ability associations (CAA) (i.e. product quality and innovative ability) and corporate social responsibility associations (CSRA) (i.e. philanthropic responsibility and ethical responsibility). Further, a conceptual model is proposed to investigate how these associations enhance customer relationship strength through different aspects of trust. According to distinct sources, this study examines competence-based trust, benevolence-based trust, and identity-based trust. A survey on young consumers is conducted focusing on corporate brands providing electronic products in China. Results support most hypotheses. Specifically, CAA can enhance competence-based and benevolence-based trust while having no influence on identity-based trust. CSRA affects relationship strength mainly through non-competence-based trust. Three categories of trust all contribute to enhancing the company–customer relationship, and interestingly identity-based trust is the most effective driver of relationship strength.

Keywords:

• corporate ability associations
• corporate social responsibility associations
• trust
• relationship strength

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by a grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (70972013) and supported by the Program for Innovative Research Team in UIBE. We would like to thank the special issue editor and reviewers for their very constructive comments and suggestions.