Date of Award
8-2009
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education (EdD)
Department
Executive Leadership
First Supervisor
Steven K. Million
Second Supervisor
James E. Schwartz
Abstract
Trust is at the heart of most human relationships, and for certain, at the heart of most long-term business relationships. The subject of hundreds of studies, books and papers , there is a universal yearning for the knowledge of how trust is gained, nurtured and protected. This study focuses on how trust in buyer-seller relationships may be affected by relational demographics – that is, how people appear to each other in terms of race, age and gender. In the United States, over $16 billion is spent annually on goods and services in the wastewater treatment market. How relational demographics influence the buyer’s selection of the vendors in this market may be of value to business practitioners and interest to scholars, and may have implications for social justice. Given the wide range of theories claiming to explain how trust evolves between buyers and sellers, a grounded theory study was used to examine the development of trust from the inside of one relatively isolated, technically-oriented, and richly-funded marketplace.
Recommended Citation
Long, David G., "Toward an Understanding of the Effect of Relational Demographics on Buyer Trust and Distrust in Technical Market Relationships: Grounded Theory Approach" (2009). Education Doctoral. Paper 37.
https://fisherpub.sjf.edu/education_etd/37
Please note that the Recommended Citation provides general citation information and may not be appropriate for your discipline. To receive help in creating a citation based on your discipline, please visit http://libguides.sjfc.edu/citations.