Does familiarity breed trust? Revisiting the antecedents of trust

Ranjay Gulati and Maxim Sytch
Additional contact information
Ranjay Gulati: Northwestern University, IL, USA, Postal: Northwestern University, IL, USA
Maxim Sytch: Northwestern University, IL, USA, Postal: Northwestern University, IL, USA

Managerial and Decision Economics, 2008, vol. 29, issue 2-3, pages 165-190

Abstract: This paper investigates how the history of interaction between organizations and between organizational boundary spanners contributes to the formation of trust between firms. Our findings, using data on the supplier-buyer relationships of two major US auto manufacturers, suggest that history affects trust formation in a complex non-linear fashion, involving a period of ambivalence early in a relationship. We show that certain kinds of exchange partners can systematically reap differential returns from a common history of interaction. Organizational similarity significantly enhances the ability of exchange partners to translate the benefits of the joint history of interaction into a stock of trust. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

View list of references

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1002/mde.1396 Link to full text; subscription required (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Access Statistics for this article

Managerial and Decision Economics is edited by Paul H. Rubin

More articles in Managerial and Decision Economics from John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Series data maintained by Christopher F. Baum ().