Measuring trust in supply chain partners' relationships

摘要

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to develop a context dependent, multi perspective multilevelrntrust measurement instrument to measure supply chain members' trust.rnDesign/methodology/approach - Since trust is a context dependent phenomenon and the level ofrntrust between partners cannot be measured easily, a conceptual framework is developed to measurernsupply chain partners' trust from risk perspective (i.e. risk related to characteristics, rational andrninstitutions/security) considering the relationship as "Risky", "Risk-worthy" and "Not risky" andrntranslated them in terms of trust perspectives as "No trust", "Trust worthy" and "Trust".rnFindings - Although the research on trust emphasizes to focus on a member's characteristics such asrnbenevolence, integrity, ability, reliability, credibility, etc, decision to trust require multiple judgmentsrntherefore trust should be measured from various context dependent perspectives at multiple levels inrnrelationship from trustor's perceptions and calculations. The key perspectives of trust in supply chainrnrelationship are; characteristics trust, rational trust (cost and benefit, dynamic capabilities, technology)rnand institutional trust/security system. An important argument of this concept is that trust can only berndyadic.rnResearch limitations/implications - Researchers on trust have repeatedly confirmed that trust is arnmultifaceted and context dependent concept. However the business context may not remain the samernin the dynamic business environment, therefore this conceptual framework can be used as generalizedrntrust measurement tool.rnPractical implications - This paper has attempted to develop a simple and practical multi level trustrnmeasurement tool for the complex multi-dimensional construct of supply chain partners' relationshiprntrust.rnOriginality/value - This study may be one of the first to develop a multi level trust measurementrnconcept from risk perspectives.