Stages of trust development in banking relationship

Using data collected from eight bank branches in India, this study examines how the trust between branch manager and loan officer begins and develops in multiple stages over a period of time. It seeks to fill an important gap in the academic literature on the development of trust between trustor and trusted over a period of time by empirically examining the trust relationship between branch manager and loan officer in a bank. The results of the cross case qualitative analysis conducted on stages of trust development using pattern matching technique suggest that trust relationship between branch manager and loan officer follows the three-stage model of Lewicki and Bunker (1996) with certain deviations applicable only to describe the relationship examined in this study. This study contributes to the literature by exploring the mechanism of trust development between branch manager and loan officer of bank branches in India through a case study and enriching the model of Lewicki and Bunker (1996).