Company Competence and Reliability Trust

What it measures

Four ten-point semantic differential items assess consumer trust in a company based on evaluations of its dependability, competence, integrity, and responsiveness. Items use bipolar anchors to position the company across trust-relevant attributes. The scale was applied to retail store and airline contexts and was designed to capture the management practices dimension of consumer trust.

Response format

10-point semantic differential

Scale items

• very undependable / very dependable
• very incompetent / very competent
• of very low integrity / of very high integrity
• very unresponsive to customers / very responsive to customers

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

Alpha of .96 for both retail store and airline contexts. No formal validity examination was reported, though fit of measurement model was acceptable. The type of business can be placed in the blank (e.g., store, airline). Sometimes combined with a parallel employee trust scale for an overall trust composite.

Citation

Sirdeshmukh, D., Singh, J., & Sabol, B. (2002). Consumer trust, value, and loyalty in relational exchanges. Journal of Marketing, 66(1), 15–37.

Keywords