Towards a context-sensitive approach to researching trust in inter-organizational relationships

Abstract

This chapter argues that trust is an inherently context-bound concept. With reference to the results of the Cambridge Vertical Contracts Project (CVCP) which examined supplier relations in the UK and Germany, it is shown that the nature and quality of inter-organizational trust varies greatly over different cultural and institutional environments. As a consequence, it is suggested that an appropriate research methodology needs to either draw on a mixed method approach involving different techniques to collect and analyse data (as has been done in the CVCP), or – perhaps even more suitably – utilize repertory grids to research a social phenomenon as complex as trust in a comparative perspective. The potential of the repertory-grid method is illustrated with reference to an empirical project on collaborative relationships in two virtual organizations in Switzerland. Introduction Over the past two decades or so, trust has attracted much attention in the management literature. Many scholars have tried to come to grips with this phenomenon and discovered many aspects of it which seem worth thorough investigation. The relationships between trust and contracts, trust and innovation and trust and institutions are among the most developed sub-themes of trust research. Key publications have recently tried to summarize where we stand and to take stock of the major results in this research field (e.g. Bachmann and Zaheer, 2006; Bachmann and Zaheer, 2008; Kramer, 2006). As these publications show, significant progress has been made and some very important insights have been gained into how trust works in business relationships.

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