Trust Repair after Opportunistic Behaviors in the Chinese Construction Projects

Xiaodan Zheng, Shuibo Zhang and Conghan Wang
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Xiaodan Zheng: Department of Construction Management, College of Civil Engineering, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037, China
Shuibo Zhang: College of Management and Economics, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
Conghan Wang: College of Management and Economics, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 7, 1-13

Abstract: Developing the trust of contractors is important for subcontractors since the trust can help subcontractors obtain a sound reputation and more chances of subcontracting. Nonetheless, the trust can be broken by opportunistic behaviors. Thus, subcontractors should utilize effective trust repair strategies to repair trust after it is violated, so as to maintain the role of trust. As a result, this study compares denial, apology, and penance as strategies for trust repair, after subcontractors demonstrate opportunistic behaviors to violate contractors’ trust in construction projects. And this study also discusses the effect of the frequency of opportunistic behaviors on the three trust repair strategies in construction projects. Scenario-based experiments are utilized as a research methodology. According to the experimental results, when a subcontractor demonstrates a single opportunistic behavior to break a contractor’s trust, the most effective strategy to repair trust is penance. The least effective strategy is denial. However, when a subcontractor has repeated opportunistic behaviors to break contractor’s trust, denial, apology, or penance has only a very limited effectiveness in trust repair. In addition, the effectiveness of the three trust repair strategies does not have significant differences. This study benefits the development of a trust repair theory applicable to construction projects. Moreover, this study offers information to assist subcontractors in utilizing the most efficient strategy to repair the trust that has been violated by opportunistic behaviors in Chinese subcontractors.

Keywords: apology; denial; penance; opportunistic behaviors; trust repair; subcontracting; scenario-based experiments (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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