The cooperative characteristics and its relation towards trust in cooperative brand

• Main Authors: Yusman Yacob, Jati Kasuma Ali, Nelson Lajuni, Hiram Ting, Muhd Khairul Azhar Ahmad
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: H Social Sciences (General)
• Online Access: https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/21990/1/The%20Cooperative%20Characteristics%20and%20its%20Relation%20Towards%20Trustin%20Cooperative%20Brand.pdf; https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/21990/

This study attempts to examine the dimensions of cooperative characteristics towards trust incooperative brand. Although there are abundance of studies on brand’s trust in the marketingliterature, little has been done on the factors leading to brand’s trust in the cooperative context.Specifically, the present study serves as a groundwork to examine the dimensions of cooperativecharacteristics and its relation towards trust in the cooperative brand among cooperative memberswith a focus on Sarawak consumer cooperatives as a research site of the study. Cooperativeintegrity, cooperative reputation, perceived motives of cooperative, and trust in cooperativeas a dimension of cooperative characteristics are looked into so as to assess their impact ontrust in the cooperative brand. A quantitative approach was adopted using self-administeredquestionnaire. By using field data collected from 135 consumer cooperative members inSarawak, all postulated relationships are examined using partial least squares structuralequation modelling (PLS-SEM). The findings suggest that cooperative characteristics, namelycooperative integrity, perceived motives of cooperative and trust in cooperative have significanteffect on trust in cooperative brand. However, cooperative reputation shows insignifcant impacton trust in cooperative brand. The study highlights the need to inculcate cooperative members’with adequate knowledge about cooperative as well as to provide platform for them to acquiretheir experience with the cooperative so as to transform into their trust in the cooperativebrand. The study also provides the managerial implications to cooperative as a retail provideras well as cooperative members’ and future directions of the research.