Trust as a valuable strategic variable in the food industry: different types of trust and their implementation

Although it is often suggested that trust is an important construct in relationship marketing, there is only little empirical evidence of how, if at all, trust may be used as a valuable strategic variable. In the 1990s, the international food industry faced a number of serious challenges, most notoriously the mad cow disease. The present multiple case study, which is qualitative in nature, explores how the Danish-British bacon supply chain has dealt with the challenges by means of implementing different types of trust. The study confirms that there are different types of trust that marketers can embrace and shows that when one type of trust is not available marketers can draw on other types. The case study also maps different patterns of implementing trust-based marketing approaches.