Trust at Different Organizational Levels

The authors explore the effects of trust at three distinct organizational levels in a marketing collaboration: interorganizational trust between collaborating firms, each firm's agency trust in its own representatives assigned to a collaborative entity (coentity), and intraentity trust among the representatives assigned to the coentity. Dyadic survey and longitudinal objective performance data from 114 international joint ventures indicate that trust at each level has unique effects but similarly influences the collaborating firms' resource investments or the coentity's use of those resources. Interorganizational and agency trust motivate resource investments in the coentity, particularly in the context of a differentiation strategy, whereas intraentity trust promotes coordination within the coentity, and interorganizational trust and a differentiation strategy magnify that effect. Intraentity trust can also undermine coentity responsiveness to environmental change, especially when joined by interorganizational trust between collaborating firms and formalized decision making within the coentity. These findings demonstrate that managing and building trust at multiple levels is critical to the success of interorganizational marketing collaborations.

[1]  Robert W. Palmatier,et al.  Factors Influencing the Effectiveness of Relationship Marketing: A Meta-Analysis , 2006 .

[2]  Neil A. Morgan,et al.  Antecedents of Export Venture Performance: A Theoretical Model and Empirical Assessment , 2004 .

[3]  Martin Gargiulo,et al.  Trapped in Your Own Net? Network Cohesion, Structural Holes, and the Adaptation of Social Capital , 2000 .

[4]  Sanjiv Kumar,et al.  The design of coordination and control mechanisms for managing joint venture–parent relationships , 1998 .

[5]  David Ernst,et al.  Launching a world-class joint venture. , 2004, Harvard business review.

[6]  Robert W. Palmatier,et al.  A Comparative Longitudinal Analysis of Theoretical Perspectives of Interorganizational Relationship Performance , 2007 .

[7]  F. Selnes,et al.  Promoting Relationship Learning , 2003 .

[8]  D. Teece,et al.  DYNAMIC CAPABILITIES AND STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT , 1997 .

[9]  C. Fornell,et al.  Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. , 1981 .

[10]  Andrew C. Inkpen,et al.  KNOWLEDGE, BARGAINING POWER, AND THE INSTABILITY OF INTERNATIONAL JOINT VENTURES , 1997 .

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

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

[13]  W. Bearden,et al.  Dependence, Trust, and Relational Behavior on the Part of Foreign Subsidiary Marketing Operations: Implications for Managing Global Marketing Operations , 2001 .

[14]  Ronald C. Goodstein,et al.  UPC Scanner Pricing Systems: Are They Accurate? , 1994 .

[15]  L. Stern,et al.  The Effect of Influence Type and Performance Outcomes on Attitude toward the Influencer , 1992 .

[16]  G. Zaltman,et al.  Organizational buying behavior: Hypotheses and directions , 1977 .

[17]  Richard Makadok.  Toward a synthesis of the resource‐based and dynamic‐capability views of rent creation , 2001 .

[18]  A. Rindfleisch.  Organizational Trust and Interfirm Cooperation: An Examination of Horizontal Versus Vertical Alliances , 2000 .

[19]  F. Webster.  The Changing Role of Marketing in the Corporation , 1992 .

[20]  Mrinal G Ghosh,et al.  Governance Value Analysis and Marketing Strategy , 1999 .

[21]  Douglas J. Ayers,et al.  An Exploratory Investigation of Organizational Antecedents to New Product Success , 1997 .

[22]  Kathleen M. Eisenhardt,et al.  DYNAMIC CAPABILITIES, WHAT ARE THEY? , 2000 .

[23]  Harbir Singh,et al.  The Effect of National Culture on the Choice of Entry Mode , 1988 .

[24]  G. John.  An Empirical Investigation of Some Antecedents of Opportunism in a Marketing Channel , 1984 .

[25]  D. W. Barclay,et al.  The Effects of Organizational Differences and Trust on the Effectiveness of Selling Partner Relationships , 1997 .

[26]  Jeffrey H. Dyer,et al.  The Relational View: Cooperative Strategy and Sources of Interorganizational Competitive Advantage , 1998 .

[27]  Bernard J. Jaworski,et al.  Market orientation: Antecedents and consequences , 1993 .

[28]  Daniel C. Bello,et al.  Two sides to attitudinal commitment: The effect of calculative and loyalty commitment on enforcement mechanisms in distribution channels , 2002 .

[29]  Jeannie L. Johnson,et al.  Setting the Stage for Trust and Strategic Integration in Japanese-U.S. Cooperative Alliances , 1996 .

[30]  T. Ambler,et al.  The Dark Side of Long-Term Relationships in Marketing Services , 1999 .

[31]  C. Prahalad,et al.  THE CORE COMPETENCY OF THE CORPORATION , 1990 .

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

[33]  Marjorie A. Lyles,et al.  Absorptive capacity, learning, and performance in international joint ventures , 2001 .

[34]  Richard P. Bagozzi,et al.  Assessing Construct Validity in Organizational Research , 1991 .

[35]  G. Zaltman,et al.  Innovations and organizations , 2020, Organizational Innovation.

[36]  Larry E. Toothaker,et al.  Multiple Regression: Testing and Interpreting Interactions , 1991 .

[37]  David W. Gerbing,et al.  An Updated Paradigm for Scale Development Incorporating Unidimensionality and Its Assessment , 1988 .

[38]  Bettina Büchel,et al.  Managing Partner Relations in Joint Ventures , 2003 .

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

[40]  Robert W. Palmatier,et al.  Customer Loyalty to Whom? Managing the Benefits and Risks of Salesperson-Owned Loyalty , 2007 .

[41]  Guido Möllering,et al.  Special Issue: Trust in an Organizational Context: Contextual Confidence and Active Trust Development in the Chinese Business Environment , 2003, Organ. Sci..

[42]  M. Tushman,et al.  Technological Discontinuities and Organizational Environments , 1986 .

[43]  B. Kogut.  The Stability of Joint Ventures: Reciprocity and Competitive Rivalry , 1989 .

[44]  J. Barney.  Firm Resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage , 1991 .

[45]  Yadong Luo.  Multinational Corporations in China: Benefiting from Structural Transformation , 2000 .

[46]  R. Reed,et al.  Causal Ambiguity, Barriers to Imitation, and Sustainable Competitive Advantage , 1990 .

[47]  C. Moorman,et al.  The Acquisition and Utilization of Information in New Product Alliances: A Strength-of-Ties Perspective , 2001 .

[48]  S. Ghoshal,et al.  Social Capital and Value Creation: The Role of Intrafirm Networks , 1998 .

[49]  Robert W. Palmatier,et al.  Returns on Business-to-Business Relationship Marketing Investments: Strategies for Leveraging Profits , 2006 .

[50]  Joseph P. Cannon,et al.  Buyer–Supplier Relationships and Customer Firm Costs , 2001 .

[51]  S. Ghoshal,et al.  Markets, Firms, and the Process of Economic Development , 1999 .

[52]  Haiyang Li,et al.  When Does Trust Matter? Antecedents and Contingent Effects of Supervisee Trust on Performance in Selling New Products in China and the United States , 2002 .

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

[54]  Gernot Grabner,et al.  Gernot Grabner (ed.): The Embedded Firm. On the Socioeconomics of Industrial Networks , 1995 .

[55]  T. Amburgey,et al.  Organizational Inertia and Momentum: A Dynamic Model Of Strategic Change , 1991 .

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

[57]  Yadong Luo,et al.  How Important are Shared Perceptions of Procedural Justice in Cooperative Alliances , 2005 .

[58]  Yadong Luo,et al.  Contract, cooperation, and performance in international joint ventures , 2002 .

[59]  A. Zellner.  An Efficient Method of Estimating Seemingly Unrelated Regressions and Tests for Aggregation Bias , 1962 .

[60]  K. McGraw,et al.  Forming inferences about some intraclass correlation coefficients. , 1996 .

[61]  Haiyang Li,et al.  Product Innovation Strategy and the Performance of New Technology Ventures in China , 2001 .

[62]  Todd H. Chiles,et al.  Integrating variable risk preferences, trust, and transaction cost economics – 25 years on: reflections in memory of Oliver Williamson , 2021, Journal of Institutional Economics.

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

[64]  R. Dahlstrom,et al.  An exploratory investigation of interpersonal trust in new and mature market economies , 1995 .

[65]  Sandy D. Jap.  Pie-Expansion Efforts: Collaboration Processes in Buyer–Supplier Relationships , 1999 .

[66]  G. Zaltman,et al.  Relationships between Providers and Users of Market Research: The Dynamics of Trust within and between Organizations , 1992 .

[67]  Ajay K. Kohli,et al.  Market Intelligence Dissemination across Functional Boundaries , 1996 .

[68]  E. Rogers,et al.  Innovations and Organizations , 1988 .

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

[70]  J. Steenkamp,et al.  Assessing Measurement Invariance in Cross-National Consumer Research , 1998 .

[71]  Sandy D. Jap,et al.  Control Mechanisms and the Relationship Life Cycle: Implications for Safeguarding Specific Investments and Developing Commitment , 2000 .

[72]  Wesley J. Johnston,et al.  The social psychology of industrial buying and selling , 1978 .

[73]  U. Yavas,et al.  Human Resource Collaboration Issues in International Joint Ventures: A Study of US-Japanese Auto Supply IJVs , 2003 .

[74]  Jan B. Heide,et al.  Relationship Governance in a Supply Chain Network , 2004 .

[75]  W. Dugger.  The Economic Institutions of Capitalism , 1987 .

[76]  Yoram Wind,et al.  Organizational Buying Behavior , 1978 .

[77]  Jan B. Heide,et al.  Opportunism in Interfirm Relationships: Forms, Outcomes, and Solutions , 2000 .

[78]  M. Porter.  Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance , 1985 .

[79]  T. Das,et al.  Between Trust and Control: Developing Confidence in Partner Cooperation in Alliances , 1998 .