The impact of perceived trustworthiness on trust and commitment: a case of boosters in a university athletic programme

The purpose of this study was to develop the scale of organizational trustworthiness (SOT), which consists of perceived accountability, integrity and fairness, and examine theoretical relationships between the trustworthiness attributes and trust, commitment and donation intention in a college athletic programme context. The proposed model was tested using 549 donors of a college booster club in an athletic programme in Division 1 Power 5 conferences in the USA. The results of a confirmatory factor analysis and factor mixture analysis confirm the reliability and validity of the scale. The results of the simultaneous equations indicate that all three aspects of donors’ perceived trustworthiness significantly influence their trust. A donor’s commitment fully mediated the relationship between their trust and giving intention. This study makes theoretical contributions to donor behaviour literature by providing an expanded view of donors’ perceived trustworthiness of an organization and making meaningful implications for administrators of college athletics organizations.