Discussion of the Empirical Findings

Abstract

The results of this study contribute to cross-cultural trust research and are noteworthy and relevant to service marketing research in at least three ways. First, I show that my proposed model of trust formation in services is valid across a broad range of countries. The model offers a very good overall fit, and the measures of the trustworthiness beliefs and trust are at least partially invariant across cultures, in support of prior cross-cultural trust research (Branzei, Vertinsky, and Camp 2007; Huff and Kelley 2003; Wasti et al. 2007). The variance of trust explained by my model ranges between 62% and 87% across cultures. The overall variance explained is 70%, consistent with other findings pertaining to customer trust in service providers (Sirdeshmukh, Singh, and Sabol 2002). The high intercorrelations of the overall trust measures with several relevant behavioral intentions in all countries further support the nomological validity of the measure. Therefore, the trustworthiness beliefs identified in a Western context appear valid across culturally diverse countries.