The Role of Cognitive and Affective Trust in Service Marketing: Antecedents and Consequence

The purpose of this study focuses on the role of cognitive andaffectivetrust in building relationships at the consumer level. More specifically, we examine the proposition that consumer trust in service providers has distinct cognitive and affective dimensions with unique antecedents and consequence. The subjects were 304 consumers of insurance services in Tehran area. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) with Lisrel software was used for the data analysis. The results showed that service provider expertise, product performance and customer satisfaction influence cognitive trust and are considered as antecedents of cognitive trust. On the other hand corporate reputation, customer satisfaction and similarity are identified as antecedents of affective trust. The present study showed that expertise of service provider has the most influence on cognitive trust while similarity has the most influence on affective trust. In relation to consequences of cognitive and affective trust, the results showed that cognitive and affective trust both influence anticipation of future interactions but the effect of cognitive trust is greater than that of affective trust.