Trust Me – I Know What I’m Doing! The Impact of Salesperson Competence and Country Competence on Initial Trust in International Service Settings

It is widely acknowledged that competence plays a critical role in the formation of trust, particularly in international service settings. However, little is known about possible ways to increase initial trust, particularly, instruments that may improve initial trust building for international companies entering a foreign market. Based on these gaps in the literature, our paper contributes to the advancement of consumer behavior research by investigating the effects of two competence-based initial trust building instruments, namely country competence and salesperson competence. Drawing on agency theory, categorization theory, attribution theory and previous research, we assume that both kinds of competence are suited to trigger the initial trust building processes. In addition, we develop hypotheses about the moderating effect of perceived risk on the link between competence and initial trust.