The Structure of Optimal Trust: A Comment and Some Extensions

The article presents a response to an article in an earlier issue of “Academy of Management Review” from Wicks, Berman, and Jones on the structure of optimal trust. The authors appreciate the article's strengthening of the bond between trust theory and the practical business world, but feel that two issues have been left out of the discussion. The authors assert that trust is part of an interconnected group of concepts, such as reciprocity, opportunism, and forebearance. Additionally, the authors contend that the logic of trust can be framed mathematically. Trust in the business context is a field that is ripe for further study.