Trust Transfer Process as a Channel Expansion Strategy

This paper proposes a systematic framework for a channel expansion strategy on the basis of a trust transfer process across both online and offline channels. Trust transfer across channels is classified into four subtypes: offline to offline, offline to online, online to online, and online to offline. After case analyses were performed for each subtype of trust transfer, dimensions such as trust transferability and channel expansion cost were applied, inducing the most practical strategy of channel expansion possible for each subtype of trust transfer. 617 questionnaire surveys from the Electronics and Foodstuff industries were utilized in this study.