Trust, information asymmetry and professional service online referral agents

Giuseppe Pedeliento (PhD) is an Assistant Professor of Marketing and Management at the Department of Management, Economics and Quantitative Methods, University of Bergamo. He is a former Visiting Lecturer at the Aalto School of Business (Helsinki), a Visiting Scholar at the University of Washington Bothell (Seattle, USA), and a Visiting Professor at the Johannes Kepler University (Linz, Austria). His research focusses on B2B and B2C marketing and branding, and consumer behaviour. At the University of Bergamo, he teaches Marketing Advanced, International Marketing, Market Research, and Supply Chain Management. His articles appeared in Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Business Ethics, Management Decision, Sage Business Cases, International Journal of Business and Management, and in other academic outlets. Since 2017, he has been a Series Editor for Marketing and Entrepreneurship for Sage Business Cases.

Daniela Andreini (PhD) is an Associate Professor of Marketing at the Department of Management, Economics and Quantitative Methods, University of Bergamo. Her research focusses primarily on digital marketing, social media marketing, social media management, multichannel retailing, sponsorship, brand management (B2B and B2C), and business model innovation. Her research appeared in journals such as International Journal of Innovation Management, Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Business Ethics, and the IMP Journal. She has developed and taught several innovative courses related to Marketing Management, Digital Marketing and Management Consulting to both graduate and undergraduate students.

Mara Bergamaschi is an Associate Professor of Management at the Department of Management, Economics and Quantitative Methods, University of Bergamo, where she is also a Vice Chancellor deputed to Fund Raising and Finance, and the Dean of the Master programmes in Management, Finance and International Business and in International Management, Entrepreneurship and Finance. She is also a Senior Professor and a faculty member of SDA (Scuola di Direzione Aziendale) at the Bocconi University. Her research interests include marketing and branding in business and consumer markets, as well as the management of service industries with a particular focus on professional services. Her research appeared in different international journals like Futures, Industrial Marketing Management, Management Decision, and Journal of Business Ethics.

Jane Elizabeth Klobas, BAppSc (Psych), MBA, PhD, is a Visiting Professor at the University of Bergamo, an Adjunct Professor at the Murdoch University, Western Australia and an Online Doctoral Thesis Supervisor for the Liverpool University. She was previously at the University of Western Australia and Bocconi University, where she taught Management Information Systems and Research Methods. Her main research interests are in knowledge management, innovation and entrepreneurship, online learning and management education. She has more than 250 scholarly publications in these fields, along with work on organisational psychology and application of the theory of planned behaviour in fields including demography and information science.