Trust)s an essential relationship model building block and has
often been defined as a belief that one relationship partner will act in
the best interest of the other(wilson 1995). Based on a meta· analysis
of studies about trust, Geyskens, Steenkamp and Kumar(1998. p. 225
POinted out that most studies In marketing build on interpersonal
research and define trust as'the extent to which a firm believes that its
exchange partner is honest and/or benevolent' or some variant
thereot This study adopts the definition of Moorman ei a]. (1992)
who studied trust in relationships between suppliers and buyers of
marketing research sbrvice§. According to Mborman et al. (1992.
p. 82). Trust is 'a willingness to rely on an exchange parmer in whom
one has confidence'confidence', An important aspect of theirdefini
tion is the concept of trust as a beliet feeling or expectation about an
exchange parmer which can be judged from the parmer's expertise,
reliability and intentions. Moorman et al.'s(1992)definition, similar to