Trust and Long-Term Satisfaction within Asymmetric Business Relationships

Abstract

This paper explores the nature of trust and satisfaction existing between service providers (large organizations) and a network of 47 distributors (small organizations) within the Kuwaiti telecommunications sector. Data was collected using a questionnaire based survey involving a convenience sample of 209 respondents representing 47 distributor outlets. The results show that the Kuwaiti telecommunications sector asymmetric relationship network was largely driven by cognitive input of trust, that is, technical competency was favored over affective input. Furthermore, there was a significant relationship between cognitive input and Long-term Satisfaction Disposition (LSD) and control input (i.e. use of power) and LSD. This indicates that trust, although favored, was not a condition for establishing long-term satisfaction within asymmetric business relationships. Finally, the influence of wasta (i.e. favoritism) and control input on trust are found to be insignificant.