The computer industry was rated the most trustworthy sector in Taiwan, followed by telecommunications, grocery/supermarkets, department stores/retailers and financial institutions, according to a survey released yesterday by Golin/Harris International Inc.
The Trust in Asian Business survey was conducted by the marketing research firm TNSNFO Asia, which polled 205 people in Taiwan aged from 25 to 50 in late October.
"The Computer industry is the anchor of Taiwan's economy, it therefore stood out from the crowd as Taiwan's most trusted sector for two consecutive years," explained Diane Wu (吳錦屏), managing director of the Chicago-based Golin/Harris International Inc's Taiwan Branch.
"The other four industries squeezed to the top five most trusted businesses because people have sensed the improvement in the quality of products and services they offered to the consumers for the past year," Wu said.
The survey of some 200 people in Taiwan also found 81 percent had sensed the crisis of trust in business this year, up from 71 percent last year, which was the first time Golin/Harris conducted the annual study.
In addition, the crisis of trust and confidence in Asian business would continue to be a seroius concern for consumers across the region, the survey showed.
"Trust can build or break a brand in Taiwan," Wu said in a statement. "Seventy-eight percent of Taiwanese say they would stop doing business with a company, reduce their business activity or switch to a competitor because they doubt the trustworthiness of a company."
The number in Taiwan is compared to 86 percent in Singapore, 70 percent in Hong Kong and 53 percent in Japan.
The top five least-trusted businesses in Taiwan in sequence were the media, health & beauty products, property developers, securities/investment banks and insurance companies.
"Media became the least-trusted industry because people have been getting tired of the overabundant reporting of gossip-style news and suspicious of the intervention by political powers," explained Stanley Liu (
The irresponsible and unethical business practices of the other four industries drive off people's trust in the businessess, thereby putting them in the category of least-trusted, according to the survey.
The results of the survey however were greeted with some skepticism by a veteran of industry and human resources, who said that the survey seemed only to reflect people's general impressions about the industries, for it did not specify certain problems, such as corporate governance or ethical issues.
"With the vague information the survey showed, I would describe the result of the survey as people's confidence, instead of trust, in these businesses," said Rocky Yang (
Grocery/supermarkets and department stores/retailers would be the businesses in which people have the greatest confidence, for these sectors only involve conventional consumption activities, and consumers' stakes are relatively low, Yang said.
On how to improve a business' image and people's confidence in an industry, the development and establishment of a corporate culture and the characteristics of a professional staff were the key points, Yang said.
"An enterprise with a profit-oriented image may make people have less confidence in it, while a business involved in public welfare will win better impressions," Yang added.
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