Trust—Factors that have an impact on the interrelations between members and employees in rural cooperatives

Abstract

In the course of growth, even across national borders, the relationship between the cooperative and its members can become less close and, in addition, rural cooperatives are mainly service companies. Trust is an important factor for service companies. Within this context, it would be interesting to know how to improve structures that foster trust within a cooperative. This study treats members and employees of the same German cooperative as an experimental case. A total of 566 members and 1250 employees within the organization responded to the questionnaire, based on the MemberValue model, in the summer of 2016. Regression analyses identified factors such as transparency and service quality that have an impact on trust expressed by members towards employees that represent the rural cooperative. This study also investigated how trust affects the exchange of information within members and employees of a rural cooperative.