Building Consumers Trust through Persuasive Interpersonal Communication in a Saturated Market: The Role of Market Mavens

This study has aims i.e. (1) to investigate the role of inherent personal knowledge in affecting trust, (2) to investigate whether mavens play a role in improving recipients knowledge level and trust. We have conducted a study, which involved a total of 134 students as respondents. Correlation between subjective knowledge and trust achieved a medium level, while objective knowledge related to trust at a very low level. Trust in the low-maven-group is the lowest in comparison with the medium- and high- mavens. This study indicates that there are different results in terms of effects of information provided by three different maven groups.