Trust and Commitment in Customer/Service-Provider Relationships:

This study highlights the importance of relationships in the marketing of services. Relationships constructs such as Trust, Affective Commitment, and Continuance Commitment are operationalized in a marketing context and used as dependent variables in an empirical study of differences in how males and females approach relationships with three types of service providers (primary care physicians, automobile mechanics, and hairstylists). The data shows that females seek more trust and commitment within the service provider/customer relationship than males. Also, consumers in general place more trust in and are more committed to their doctor and their hairstylist than to their mechanic.