Under the conditions of growing uncertainty in the business environment and the increasing role of risk, trust seems to be a key factor for interpersonal relationships, and it is also gaining more weight in man–machine, man–institution and man–product relationships.
Initially, relationships based on trust referred only to interpersonal relationships, i.e. those occurring between two or more people (interpersonal trust) [40-46]. Over time, the concept of trust has been applied to institutions/organisations (institutional trust, organisational trust) [47, 48], objects, devices or technology (technology trust) [49-52].
A new promising research area includes the definition of trust in service that is increasingly provided without direct contact between the service provider and the customer. Ben-Gal et al. confirmed that the success of service delivery is a multi-dimensional phenomenon [53]. The attempts to develop a definition of trust in service were usually based on two approaches, i.e., performance-related (reflecting competence, customization, reliability, and promptness) and personality-related (emphasising empathy, politeness, and similarity) [54].
With the development of many categories of global services (e.g., retail banking, fast-food chains, and rental car agencies), it is difficult to build relationships based on trust [55]. With growing frequency, self-service technologies replace direct contacts with the service provider. Trust in service is becoming particularly crucial in the case of limited access to information, incomplete information, and the increasing role of risk and uncertainty. The abstract nature of services will always remain the source of customer risk and uncertainty [54].
Trust was an object of scientific interest in relation to such services as life insurance [56], education [53], e-commerce [27, 57], social media [58], technology consulting [59], the Internet of Things (IoT) [60], m-payment [61], healthcare [62], mobile money [63], online services [43, 64, 65], and the use of blockchain [66].
Examining the relationship between trust and future interactions among customers and financial advisors, Johnson and Grayson focused on cognitive trust and affective trust, at the same time relating trust to interpersonal relationships [67]. Sekhon et al. developed a service trust model that included the overall trust and customer disposition to trust in service, leaving out the cognitive trust and affective trust [18].
A different approach to defining trust in service was adopted by Ben-Gal et al. [53]. Referring to the model by Dietz & Den Hartog’s [68], the authors treated trust as actions (actionable trust) resulting from previous beliefs and decisions [53]. Actionable trust has been defined by the authors as the propensity for recommending a particular service to subsequent potential consumers. The conducted research confirmed that actionable trust was a dominant factor in the service success, thus called for the need to focus on the relational aspect of service encounters [53].
The development of e-services affects the importance of other factors [69]. The dynamic development of e-services (e-commerce and m-commerce) also requires building trust-based relationships that determine the quality of services. Following the traditional typology of trust (personal, institutional, and trust in technology), trust in service is a combination of trust in the institution itself (the service provider/vendor), interpersonal trust and the applied technologies.
The type of provided services and the character of relationships (direct or indirect) between the service provider and customer determine the process of creating trust-based relationships. In the case of direct contact of the customer with the service provide (financial insurance and advisory services), human and social factors play a more significant role in the process of trust-building. On the other hand, in the case where a service is provided in the form of e-services
(e-commerce), physical and technological factors gain significance.
According to Mcknight et al., the understanding of the factors that determine consumer trust in service vendors (and the services themselves) allows service providers to build their strategies for achieving the ultimate goal — greater acceptance of the B2C (business-to-customer) electronic commerce [70].
Chaparro-Peláez et al. analysed trust in e-commerce services in the context of consumer willingness to accept weaknesses and failures related to the provision of services and their expectations for the improvement and elimination of these failures [57].
Abdul-Hamid et al. researched the mobile money service and distinguished two categories of trust: service provider trust and economy-based trust. Trust in the service provider was related to the safeguard of personal information and money, while the economy-based trust was more related to the functionality of the solution saving costs and time as well as the economic rationality [63].
Mcknight et al. investigated initial trust, i.e., trust in an unfamiliar web vendor, and developing and testing a Trust Building Model (TBM) [70]. Trust in the vendor was defined as a multi-dimensional construct with two components, namely, trusting beliefs (perceptions of the competence, benevolence, and integrity of the vendor) and trusting intentions — the willingness to depend (a decision to make oneself vulnerable to the vendor). In their model, the authors proposed three factors for building consumer trust in the vendor: structural assurance (consumer perceptions of the safety of the web environment), perceived web vendor reputation, and perceived web site quality [70].
Research on human behavioural issues in relation to online services highlights the need to incorporate a trust variable that better explains the acceptance of electronic services by their users [71, 72].
Despite the unquestionable importance of trust, the construct is conceptualized and measured very differently [55]. An overview of the definitions of trust in service and measurement scales is given in Table 1.
Until now, the process of defining and measuring trust in service has mainly focused on interpersonal relationships between the service provider (vendor) and the consumer. A different approach to trust must be developed for defining and measuring service, having in mind two different types of services, i.e. human-oriented and technology-oriented, and with particular regard to the second group. The development of services with the help of ICT technologies (i.e., technology-oriented services), which replace interpersonal relationships, requires adopting a new approach to trust research, which also considers trust in material, physical factors. Many authors agree that trust does not only refer to interpersonal but also human relationships with technologies [65]. In many areas, relationships between customers and service providers are continuously replaced with various self-service technologies (e.g., in the banking industry) [76].
For example, the development of distance-learning technologies requires their users to have the skills to operate specific software solutions and, thus, to rely on these technologies. Many researchers indicate that research of online transactions should also focus on two dimensions of trust: trust in transaction partners and trust in infrastructure (technology) [77, 78]. When it comes to using services based on ICT in virtual environments, there are always two important players: the service provider and the technology, on which the service is based [74]. In the context of the development of electronic commerce, Ratnasingham stated that the virtual environment required trust to make it work. Technology alone is not enough [79]. According to Williams et al., trust in technology is a crucial determinant for the uptake of m-payment service by customers [61]. Trust in the government and the Internet were also the main factors contributing to citizen trust in e-government [80].
Courier service is the last and crucial step in the process of Internet shopping. More and more often, it is rendered to customers mainly using non-human interfaces based on information technologies and modern logistics solutions. The ICT tools used in courier service not only provide more convenience for consumers and business clients, but also offer more personalization options for online ordering, tracking, and payments [81]. Based on modern technologies, e-customer service provides current information to the customer about order processing and also enables order management and communication through the website or application of a logistics operator. The most advanced IT systems often integrate shipping companies to provide comprehensive service for the sender (manufacturer, seller) and support electronic order processing. Due to the increasing popularity of m-commerce, the courier operators offer special applications for clients and receivers to monitor the status of shipments and also change the place and time of delivery or even open a parcel locker [82, 83]. Another solution based on information technology, which is crucial for parcel receivers in e-commerce, is Pick-up Drop-off network (PUDO), where customers can collect and return ordered products. The most used among these delivery solutions are pickup points in commercial centres and automated parcel lockers, which are more popular because of convenient location and access [84-86]. The use of artificial intelligence by courier enterprises is becoming more frequent, especially seeking to contact customers through bots or chat-bots, which are gradually replacing traditional customer service. Experts predict that in the future, courier service will be provided without human assistance, thanks to artificial intelligence, automatization systems and autonomous vehicle or drones [81, 87].
Summing up, the rapid development of digitalization and modern technologies have been already transforming all transport and logistics segments, and it is expected to be the most impactful trend over the coming years, reshaping the entire courier branch. Therefore, the technology-oriented courier service supporting e-commerce branch requires a special research approach to customer trust in modern technologies and multicriterial approach [88]. Similar to the e-service and online shopping, trust in technologies should be examined as one of the key factors affecting the perceived service quality and future intentions of clients.
Considering the above, while building the model of factors that shape the quality of courier services, the authors focused on the technological aspects of the services. The starting point was the extension of the model of technology acceptance by the trust construct.