Paper info: Trust Development – a dynamic perspective
Title
Trust Development – a dynamic perspective
Authors
Amna Khan
University of Manchester
United Kingdom
Judy Zolkiewski
Manchester Business School
United Kingdom
Place of Publication
The paper was published at the 28th IMP-conference in Rome, Italy in 2012.
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Abstract
Trust is often treated as a static phenomenon by academic researchers. This view of trust neglects the dynamic nature of trust, which suggests, that trust, can develop, stabilise, decrease, re-develop. Limitations of the static snapshot to trust can be overcome by attempting to understand trust as a process and seeing trust as having a past, present and future. This paper explores trust development in Chinese business-to-business relationships, at both an inter-organisational and an interpersonal level. The study was conducted using Chinese buyers and suppliers and indicates that trust develops at both these levels and is interactive. At an organisational level, adaptations contribute to trust development and an interpersonal level, guanxi and renqing, (reciprocity) affect trust development, both interorganizational and interpersonal trust impact upon the overall trust in the business relationship. These results suggest that guanxi is an essential aspect of Chinese business interactions and is intertwined with trust.