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This study aims to identify the political alignment and political activity of the 11 Presidents of Britain’s most important scientific organisation, the Royal Society of London, in its early years 1662–1703, to determine whether or not the institution was politically aligned.

There is almost no information addressing the political alignment of the Royal Society or its Presidents available in the institution’s archives, or in the writings of historians specialising in its administration. Even reliable biographical sources, such as the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography provide very limited information. However, as 10 Presidents were elected Member of Parliament (MP), The History of Parliament: British Political, Social and Local History provides a wealth of accurate, in-depth data, revealing the alignment of both.

All Presidents held senior government offices, the first was a Royalist aristocrat; of the remaining 10, 8 were Royalist or Tory MPs, 2 of whom were falsely imprisoned by the House of Commons, 2 were Whig MPs, while 4 were elevated to the Lords. The institution was Royalist aligned 1662–1680, Tory aligned 1680–1695 and Whig aligned 1695–1703, which reflects changes in Parliament and State.

This study establishes that the early Royal Society was not an apolitical institution and that the political alignment of Presidents and institution continued in later eras. Furthermore, it demonstrates how the election or appointment of an organisation’s most senior officer can be used to signal its political alignment with government and other organisations to serve various ends.

This empirical paper aims to assess the multi-dimensional nature of trust in service relationships. Although trust is deemed to be important for managing service relationships there is a dearth of research looking at its multidimensional nature outside of Western markets.

The study is undertaken in three countries: UK, Hong Kong and India (September to November 2010). The sample consists of more than 300 sample members from across the three countries with an approximately even split between each.

The findings show that cognitive trust does not significantly impact affective trust, but the other relationships in the model are supported. Customer ' s disposition to trust impacts both cognitive and overall trust.

The research provides direction for services marketing scholars and practitioners, but there are limitations because not all types of financial institutions are evaluated.

The practical implications of this work are profound given that transnational operations of most retail banks. Understanding trust dimensions aids relationship managers to devise differentiated strategies to build/re-build and maintain long-term trust relationships with customers.

This work extends the understanding of relationships, but by rooting the work in retail banking it provides new insights for academics and practitioners. For service marketing scholars, this study calls into question some of the multi-dimensional nature of trust and for practitioners it can help aid strategy development.