Who Trusts Who?: The Role of Individual and Organizational Level in Determining the Nature of Inter-Organizational Trust

Previous research on the nature of trust in an organizational context provided somewhat controversial and ambiguous results. There are both conceptual and operational difficulties in exploring this intuitively individual-level phenomenon at organizational and inter-organizational levels. The fundamental question of where trust resides in inter-organizational relationships remains unresolved. This qualitative study focuses on inter-organizational trust in dyadic business relationships. The phenomenon is approached both from the concept of the trustor and the trustee. The results suggest that the trusting party is not the organization itself, but the individuals who constitute it. Instead, the ultimate object of trust in inter-organizational settings is both individual boundary-spanners, and the organization.

[1]  P. L. Koopman,et al.  Trust within organisations: Introduction to a special issue. , 2003 .

[2]  Ning Li,et al.  Trust at Different Organizational Levels , 2008 .

[3]  Mari Sako,et al.  Price, Quality and Trust: Inter-firm Relations in Britain and Japan , 1992 .

[4]  L. Hosmer.  TRUST: THE CONNECTING LINK BETWEEN ORGANIZATIONAL THEORY AND PHILOSOPHICAL ETHICS , 1995 .

[5]  Robert S. Chase,et al.  A Road to Trust , 2008 .

[6]  Gaynelle R. Winograd,et al.  Organizational Trust: What It Means, Why It Matters , 2000 .

[7]  S. Hunt,et al.  The Commitment-Trust Theory of Relationship Marketing , 1994 .

[8]  Roderick M. Kramer,et al.  Swift trust and temporary groups. , 1996 .

[9]  K. Blois.  Trust in Business to Business Relationships: An Evaluation of its Status , 1999 .

[10]  N. L. Chervany,et al.  Initial trust formation in new organizational relationships, Academy of Management Review, , . , 1998 .

[11]  P. Ring,et al.  Developmental Processes of Cooperative Interorganizational Relationships , 1994 .

[12]  Nelson Phillips,et al.  Citibankers at Citigroup: A Study of the Loss of Institutional Trust after a Merger , 2008 .

[13]  D. Stimpson,et al.  Some correlates of trust. , 1978, The Journal of psychology.

[14]  J. Barney,et al.  Trustworthiness as a Source of Competitive Advantage , 1994 .

[15]  Ronald W. Perry,et al.  Organizational Trust, Trust in the Chief Executive and Work Satisfaction , 2007 .

[16]  J. Lewis,et al.  Trust as a Social Reality , 1985 .

[17]  J. H. Davis,et al.  An Integrative Model Of Organizational Trust , 1995 .

[18]  Tim Dornan,et al.  “You can’t Cure it so you have to Endure it”: The Experience of Adaptation to Diabetic Renal Disease , 2002, Qualitative Health Research.

[19]  James A. Narus,et al.  A Model of Distributor Firm and Manufacturer Firm Working Partnerships , 1990 .

[20]  S. Koeszegi.  Trust‐building strategies in inter‐organizational negotiations , 2004 .

[21]  M. Brewer,et al.  Effects of group identity on resource use in a simulated commons dilemma. , 1984, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[22]  Jeffrey K. Pinto,et al.  Trust in projects: An empirical assessment of owner/contractor relationships , 2009 .

[23]  Roderick M. Kramer,et al.  Trust and distrust in organizations: emerging perspectives, enduring questions. , 1999, Annual review of psychology.

[24]  Richard A. Krueger,et al.  Designing and Conducting Focus Group Interviews , 2002 .

[25]  A. Seligman.  The Problem of Trust , 2021 .

[26]  Roderick M. Kramer,et al.  Collective trust and collective action: The decision to trust as a social decision. , 1996 .

[27]  N. L. Chervany,et al.  Initial Trust Formation in New Organizational Relationships , 1998 .

[28]  J. H. Davis,et al.  An Integrative Model of Organizational Trust: Past, Present, and Future , 2007 .

[29]  J. Rotter.  Interpersonal trust, trustworthiness, and gullibility. , 1980 .

[30]  Francis L. Jeffries,et al.  Trust and Adaptation in Relational Contracting , 2000 .

[31]  C. Lane,et al.  Trust within and between organizations : conceptual issues and empirical applications , 2000 .

[32]  Bernard Barber,et al.  The Logic and Limits of Trust , 1983 .

[33]  W. Hamilton,et al.  The Evolution of Cooperation , 1984 .

[34]  S. Henneberg,et al.  Trust and reliance in business relationships , 2007 .

[35]  Guido Möllering,et al.  Introduction: Understanding organizational trust – foundations, constellations, and issues of operationalisation , 2004 .

[36]  R. Krishnan,et al.  Measures for Dealing with Competence and Integrity Violations of Interorganizational Trust at the Corporate and Operating Levels of Organizational Hierarchy , 2009 .

[37]  R. Petty,et al.  The gradual threshold model of ambivalence: relating the positive and negative bases of attitudes to subjective ambivalence. , 1996, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[38]  Gabriel Szulanski,et al.  When and How Trustworthiness Matters: Knowledge Transfer and the Moderating Effect of Causal Ambiguity , 2004, Organ. Sci..

[39]  Mark S. Granovetter.  Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness , 1985, American Journal of Sociology.

[40]  D. Ferrin,et al.  The Role of Trust in Organizational Settings , 2001 .

[41]  Guido Möllering,et al.  Trust: Reason, Routine, Reflexivity , 2006 .

[42]  F. Fukuyama.  Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity Penguin London , 1995 .

[43]  P. Ring,et al.  Structuring cooperative relationships between organizations , 1992 .

[44]  R. Lewicki,et al.  Trust And Distrust: New Relationships and Realities , 1998 .

[45]  Preet S. Aulakh,et al.  Trust and Performance in Cross-Border Marketing Partnerships: A Behavioral Approach , 1996 .

[46]  J. Child,et al.  Strategies of cooperation: managing alliances, networks, and joint ventures , 2000 .

[47]  P. Berger,et al.  Social Construction of Reality , 1991, The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Mass Media and Society.

[48]  Ana Cristina Costa,et al.  Work team trust and effectiveness , 2003 .

[49]  Amar Gupta,et al.  Common Knowledge Sharing Model of 24-Hour Knowledge Factory of Grid Computing Based on Case Based Reasoning , 2008, Int. J. Knowl. Manag..

[50]  G. Hofstede.  Motivation, leadership, and organization: Do American theories apply abroad? , 1980 .

[51]  Morton Deutschi.  The Effect of Motivational Orientation upon Trust and Suspicion , 1960 .

[52]  Roderick M. Kramer,et al.  The Psychology of Intergroup Attitudes and Behavior , 1985 .

[53]  Jeffrey H. Dyer,et al.  The determinants of trust in supplier–automaker relationships in the US, Japan, and Korea , 2000 .

[54]  K. Blomqvist.  The many faces of trust , 1997 .

[55]  Catherine Cassell,et al.  Qualitative methods and analysis in organizational research , 1998 .

[56]  Tom R. Tyler,et al.  Trust within organisations , 2003 .

[57]  Bonnie Cheuk.  Applying Sense-Making Methodology to Design Knowledge Management Practices , 2008, Int. J. Knowl. Manag..

[58]  Joseph P. Cannon,et al.  An Examination of the Nature of Trust in Buyer–Seller Relationships: , 1997 .

[59]  Robert D. Costigan,et al.  A Multi-Dimensional Study of Trust in Organizations , 1998 .

[60]  Matthew B. Miles,et al.  Qualitative Data Analysis: An Expanded Sourcebook , 1994 .

[61]  K. Giffin.  The contribution of studies of source credibility to a theory of interpersonal trust in the communication process. , 1967, Psychological bulletin.

[62]  Tan Yigitcanlar.  Moving Towards a Knowledge City?: Brisbane's Experience in Knowledge-Based Urban Development , 2011, Int. J. Knowl. Based Organ..

[63]  Indre Maurer.  How to build trust in inter-organizational projects: The impact of project staffing and project rewards on the formation of trust, knowledge acquisition and product innovation , 2010 .

[64]  A. Zaheer,et al.  Does Trust Matter? Exploring the Effectsof Interorganizational and Interpersonaltrust on Performance , 1998 .

[65]  John Wang.  Intelligence Methods and Systems Advancements for Knowledge-Based Business , 2012 .

[66]  R. Gulati.  Does Familiarity Breed Trust? The Implications of Repeated Ties for Contractual Choice in Alliances , 1995 .

[67]  Candace E Young-Ybarra,et al.  Strategic Flexibility in Information Technology Alliances: the Influence of Transaction Cost Economics and Social Exchange Theory , 1999 .

[68]  Bart Nooteboom,et al.  Trust: Forms, Foundations, Functions, Failures and Figures , 2003 .

[69]  B. Nooteboom,et al.  Effects of trust and governance on relational risk. , 1997 .

[70]  Akbar Zaheer,et al.  Free to Be Trusted? Organizational Constraints on Trust in Boundary Spanners , 2003, Organ. Sci..

[71]  P. Liamputtong.  Qualitative Research Methods , 2005 .

[72]  Steven C. Currall,et al.  A Multilevel Approach to Trust in Joint Ventures , 2002 .

[73]  John K. Butler.  Toward Understanding and Measuring Conditions of Trust: Evolution of a Conditions of Trust Inventory , 1991 .

[74]  Guido Möllering.  Trust, Institutions, Agency : Towards a Neoinstitutional Theory of Trust , 2006 .

[75]  Charles C. Snow,et al.  FIELD RESEARCH METHODS IN STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT: CONTRIBUTIONS TO THEORY BUILDING AND TESTING* , 1994 .

[76]  Niels G. Noorderhaven,et al.  Levels of inter-organizational trust : Conceptualization and measurement , 2006 .

[77]  K. Blomqvist.  Partnering in the Dynamic Environment: The Role of Trust in Asymmetric Technology Partnership Formation , 2002 .

[78]  Young-YbarraCandace,et al.  Strategic Flexibility in Information Technology Alliances , 1999 .

[79]  S. Sundqvist,et al.  Measuring inter-organizational trust—a critical review of the empirical research in 1990–2003 , 2007 .

[80]  Hannele Kerosuo,et al.  Development Curriculum for Knowledge-Based Organizations: Lessons from a Learning Network , 2013, Int. J. Knowl. Based Organ..

[81]  Karl W. Kuhnert,et al.  A Theoretical Review and Empirical Investigation of Employee Trust in Management , 1992 .

[82]  M. Dibben.  Exploring Interpersonal Trust in the Entrepreneurial Venture , 2000 .

[83]  L. Pereira,et al.  International Journal of Knowledge-Based Organizations , 2011 .

[84]  Sheila Simsarian Webber,et al.  Leadership and trust facilitating cross‐functional team success , 2002 .

[85]  John Child,et al.  Trust—the fundamental bond in global collaboration , 2001 .

[86]  R. Bachmann.  Trust, Power and Control in Trans-Organizational Relations , 2001 .

[87]  James M. Barry,et al.  Trust determinants and outcomes in global B2B services , 2007 .

[88]  L. Strickland.  Surveillance and trust1 , 1958 .