The Political Economy of Trust

There has been a considerable rise in discourses concerning trust from a range of academic disciplines and perspectives. Unfortunately, many of these literatures have talked past, rather than to, each other. This paper develops an analysis of trust in economic activity through a dialogue between the disciplines of economics and sociology. It outlines the relationship of trust to economic co–operation and identifies a number of types of trust. The potential benefits of these different types of trust to advanced capitalist economies are identified. Consideration is given to the processes of trust creation and destruction in market economies. Particular emphasis here is on how far trust can be symbiotic with, or contradictory to, power and the market. With an analysis of the key properties of individual agents which make them more or less prone to trusting behaviour, the paper is then able to identify the critical factors likely to underlie high–trust and low–trust economies. This has important public policy implications given the potential benefits which trust can have for advanced economies.     

联盟合作关系中的信任及其规制效果的理论分析

战略联盟合作伙伴之间都坚持诚信并不是一个均衡解,任何一方的不守信都将触发战略联盟的非合作行为,并导致战略联盟失败,因而强调基于信任的联盟合作关系的动机性治理并不是可靠的机制,它不能准确显示联盟成员的真实守信水平,也忽视了战略联盟的资产投入和经济利益的影响。     

基于信任机制的复杂网络知识传播模型的研究

当今世界,知识传播是经济增长的重要因素。针对知识在网络上的传播具有"小世界"特性,结合信任机制,对Cowan模型中知识传播的易货交换假设和无条件主动假设进行修正;分析了组织中影响信任的因素及在认知型信任、情感型信任不同信任水平下知识在网络上的传播行为;并提出了一种基于信任机制的复杂网络知识传播模型。该模型可以分析知识传播的网络特征,得出结点之间信任值高、网络的平均知识水平高时,知识传播效率越高,即知识传播更加容易。     

Assessing Trust Through Social Capital? A Possible Experimental Answer

Trust is important in economics: several transactions are based on it; unfortunately it is difficult to measure. The recent economic literature on social capital shows a positive association between this concept and trust. As social capital is easier to measure than trust, this paper analyzes the possibility of assessing trust using a measure of social capital. A basic trust game is played in three Western European countries with undergraduate students; a questionnaire measures their level of social capital as time spent within social networks. This measure is stronger and more precise than the ones generally used. The use of an experiment instead of a questionnaire allows for constructing a measure of trust that is continuous in principle. Moreover, to play an experiment allows for observing the behavior of the participants better than by the means of a survey. The results are supportive of the fact that trust can be assessed through social capital, although the presence of a strong geographical effect has to be accounted for.     

Trust and corruption: The influence of positive and negative social capital on the economic development in the European Union

Why are the Scandinavian countries in the European Union significantly richer than Southern/Eastern European countries? We try to answer this question from an empirical social capital perspective. In particular, we are interested in the interplay of social trust as a positive and corruption as a negative manifestation of social capital. The opportunities to provide answers by multivariate modelling are, however, limited by several problems related to small sample size and low degrees of freedom. Regarding these problems, we test the interrelating influences between positive and negative social capital by applying a path model that accounts for Granger-like causal effects. Our empirical results, referring to a sample of up to 25 EU countries, show that corruption might harm poor European countries but is not able to affect social trust. However, corruption in itself means that resources end up in the wrong places and not in socioeconomically optimal investments. There is, therefore, a direct damaging effect of corruption on wealth. This implies that economic actors have to invest higher transaction and control costs which will bind resources to non-productive purposes and thus destroy economic wealth. Most remarkable is that the augmentation of positive social capital could work as an effective counterforce to corruption, even if it does not compensate for the economic loss caused by corruption. Thus, adding the social capital perspective may contribute to understanding present day variation in the wealth of European nations by the damaging effect of corrupt activities and/or the positive force of social trust.     

The structural,social, and strategic factors associated with successful business networks

Business networks, formal arrangements between independent businesses established to enhance member success, are generally accepted as an important strategy to help small businesses survive and prosper, and to promote regional economic development. However, knowledge about what contributes to the success of business networks themselves is less extensive and based primarily on case studies or reports of network directors. The purpose of this paper is to partially address this shortcoming. We consider the structural and social features identified in previous studies as likely correlates of business network success. Using a social constructionist definition of network success, we distinguish successful from less successful networks from among a sample of 29 industry and community business networks in the USA. Findings from interviews with 1122 members and 29 network leaders suggest that trust is central to understanding network success. Structural features have complex positive and negative indirect effects on success through trust and resource exchanges. The findings highlight the fact that business networks, while offering great potential as a way to enhance economic vitality of regions and industries, cannot be viewed as a simple remedy.     

Do people trust more when they are happy or when they are sad? Evidence from an experiment

This paper deals with the role played by incidental emotions on trust decisions. Based on a laboratory experiment with monetary incentives, we explore the way positive and negative emotions impact transfers in a trust game. In addition, we investigate the mechanism through which risk intervenes in the relationship between emotions and trust. Our results suggest that negative emotions influence trust positively, whereas positive emotions decrease trust. This effect disappears once risk is included to the game. Furthermore, we found that transfer in the trust game is driven by other‐regarding preferences and by risk preferences.     

社会信任与会计信息可比性

以2007—2017年我国A股上市公司为样本,研究地区社会信任水平对会计信息可比性的影响,结果表明：在其他因素相同的情况下,社会信任程度越高,会计信息可比性越高;相较于国有企业,社会信任对会计信息可比性的促进作用在非国有企业中更加明显。进一步研究发现,社会信任对会计信息可比性的促进作用在内部控制质量较高、机构投资者持股比例较大、分析师跟踪人数较多的公司中更不显著。通过中介效应检验发现,盈余管理在社会信任与会计信息可比性之间发挥着部分中介效应,即社会信任能够通过降低公司的盈余管理来提高会计信息可比性。     

The effects of technical and social conditions on workplace trust

This paper investigates the extent to which the technical and social contexts of organizations independently affect levels of workplace trust. We argue that, in an organizational context, trust is not just a relationship between an individual subject (the truster) and an object (the trustee) but is subject to effects from the conditions of the work relationship itself. We describe the organizational context as comprising both a technical system of production (where work gets done through the specification of tasks) and a social system of work (where problems of effort, compliance, conformity and motivation are managed). We analyse the relationship between trust and these two aspects of workplace context (technical and social systems). We also operationalize this in terms of differences between industries, occupational composition and human resource management practices. The model is tested using data drawn from the 1995 Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey. The results confirm that differences in industry, occupational composition and HRM practices all impact on levels of workplace trust. We review these results in terms of their implications for future research into the problem of analysing variation in trust at both the workplace and individual levels.     

The role of Embeddedness in Industrial Symbiosis Networks: Phases in the Evolution of Industrial Symbiosis Networks

Industrial symbiosis (IS) has emerged as a body of exchange structures to progress to a more eco‐efficient industrial system, by establishing a collaborative web of knowledge, material and energy exchanges among different organizational units. However, even given the potential economic and environmental benefits derived from IS networks, the process of emergence and development of these networks seems far from straightforward. The effective operation of such networks relies heavily on aspects such as trust and general reciprocity, aspects insufficiently covered in the IS literature. Based on the theoretical framework provided by social network analysis and economic geography and the empirical data collected through qualitative methods, based on the approach of Grounded Theory, the authors propose a modelling framework to analyse the main mechanisms in the building of trust and embeddedness and identify different phases in cooperation leading to effective IS exchanges. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

企业网络形成与演变路径的社会性质视角分析

本文从社会制度结构层面中所嵌入的社会资本(信任类型)视角入手,探寻不同社会信任结构对企业网络组织外在形式的多样性特征与升级演进路径选择的作用机制及内在机理,得出结论:社会制度层面的信任关系与信任结构通过交易成本与治理机制途径,深刻影响乃至决定该社会经济体中企业网络组织的外在形式与升级演进路径。关系型信任偏向的社会结构适于发展企业集群与外包(下包)制类型的企业网络组织形式,而制度型信任偏向的社会结构有利于虚拟组织与战略联盟类型的企业网络组织形式。企业网络由低级形式向高级形式、低端产业向高端产业演进进程中,社会制度所内涵的社会资本与信用体系的变迁与构建是核心因素之一。     

The effects of donation button design on aid agency transactional trust

• The effects of web page donation link (donation button) design on aid agency transactional trust was examined in a survey and in two experiments. Experiment 1 compared three donation button designs, which were developed on the basis of study 1, which was a survey of 559 charity websites, and found no significant effects on rated transactional trust. Experiment 2 attempted to manipulate transactional uncertainty through donation button design by incorporating crisis/need and aid agency response photographs. These button design manipulations significantly increased rated transactional trust. In both experiments, transactional trust ratings were significantly correlated with donation compliance ratings. These results suggest that transactional trust can be enhanced through the considered design of the donation button, and increasing transactional trust in this manner may result in more online donations.

Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Debt as the Basis of Currency

A bstract Even more than most nineteenth-century economists, Henry Dunning Macleod recognized the importance of trust in a properly functioning monetary system. Macleod developed a credit theory of money in which he argued that money originated as a debt claim against society. The value of money depends on the willingness of economic agents to accept it, no matter what material the money is made of. Macleod applied this theory to the evaluation of other systems in which money is not based on debt, showing the dangerous consequences that could arise from pursuing other theories of money creation to their logical conclusions.     

民营企业公司治理中家族冲突的解决路径

民营企业公司治理的核心任务就是要解决企业治理和家族治理之间的冲突。以血缘和信任为纽带的家族情感与以法律和经济契约为纽带的现代公司理性本身就存在冲突。在民营企业公司治理层面,当所有权与经营权分离时,民营企业家就必须设计和探索出一条既能保障家族权益、又能实现企业有效管控的健康发展的公司治理路径。民营企业的家族商业表现同家族和睦与家族冲突息息相关。代民营企业公司治理需要在经济理性与家族情感、文化传统与现行法律、专业化运营与家族控股中找到合适的平衡点。民营企业公司在成长过程中,需要在公司治理的关键环节上进行设计和把握,从而找到家族冲突的解决路径。通过规范化与专业化的公司治理,实现企业的可持续发展。     

Risky Businesses? Young People in Informal Self‐Employment in Sofia

This article studies how perceptions of the risks associated with informal self‐employment depend on the interplay between the institutional, structural (network) and cultural embeddedness of economic action. Informal self‐employment should create at least three types of risk. The first concerns the possible legal and social sanctions that stem from the illegal character of the entrepreneurial action. The second is related to the complete lack of social security protection among those for whom informal self‐employment is their sole employment. The third is connected with the lack of guarantees concerning contract enforcement, which may increase the probability of opportunistic behaviour by business partners and clients. On the basis of a qualitative study of young, highly educated, informally self‐employed workers in Bulgaria's capital Sofia, I argue that these risks are compensated by the specific network and cultural embeddedness of the economic action. This compensation takes the form of various types of insurance against risks. Its core is the replacement of the vacuum of institutional‐system trust with interpersonal trust. Thus, the specific constellation of institutional, network and cultural embeddedness is able to solve the problem of opportunism, as well as to create the perception that the informally self‐employed are faced with not much greater risks than registered self‐employed workers.     

略论企业变革中的领导信任

良好的领导信任关系是企业变革的坚实基础，但企业的变革却毫不留情地对领导信任关系提出考验，构建良好的领导信任关系需要增强领导者行为与人格特质中内在的可信性，通过有效的方式把展示变革的成效与展示自己的可信性有机地结合起来，通过一定的制度、政策和文化措施营造支持变革、促进信任关系形成和发展的组织土壤。     

产学研间的信任关系与合作模式选择——基于多案例的比较研究

为了克服新进入缺陷和青春期缺陷,新创企业倾向于选择产学研合作,作为其进入市场和获取竞争优势的重要途径。从产学研多元主体间的信任关系与合作模式的匹配角度入手,本文提出了基于算计型信任的点对点式合作模式、基于知识型信任的双向链式互动合作模式和基于认同型信任的协同共生网络化合作模式。并以菁茂生态、长征药业和阳明化工3家典型企业为案例研究对象,比较分析了三种匹配模式在实践应用中的差异性,最后,就新创企业产学研合作模式匹配的动态性提出了三大关注点,包括从经济契约到信任嵌入的演化方向、从个体信任到团队信任的扩散效应、从认知型信任到情感型信任的升华过程。     

Trust and trustworthiness in organizations: The role of monitoring and moral suasion

We ask whether the corporate law provisions establishing that the conduct of the manager is subject to review by the investors (monitoring) and that managers are held to an honorable behavior (moral suasion) can increase trust and trustworthiness in organizations. We answer this question through a laboratory experiment. We find that moral suasion increases the investors' trust. Monitoring also increases trust but only when the manager is not aware of the experimental identity of the monitor. The manager returns more to those investors who trust more but appropriates around 50% of the available resources. The trustworthiness of the manager is, however, unaffected by monitoring or moral suasion. We discuss possible causes of the difference between the investors' expectations regarding the behavior of the manager and the observed behavior of the manager.     

Antecedents of trust in industrial districts: an empirical analysis of inter-firm relations in a Turkish industrial district

Structural features and institutional settings of industrial districts, rather than contracts as a co-coordinating mechanism, promote trust in exchanges between firms in industrial districts. Based on this assumption, the paper explores the antecedents of trust in a Turkish industrial district at three levels: institutional environment; institutional arrangements; and inter-firm exchanges. In relation to institutional environment, dominant institutions of the Turkish economy – mainly state and finance – and their policies that undermine the role of SMEs in economic development are studied. In this context a third institution, the ‘district association’ that has a vital role in promoting trust-based governance has been analysed. At the second level, formal and informal institutional arrangements that govern the web of exchanges between firms are surveyed. The third level of analysis is directed at entrepreneurs and their attitudes towards family, friendship, expertise and reputation are studied. The research site is the Merter textile district in Istanbul. Data for second and third levels of analysis has been collected through structured interviews and is analysed quantitatively. For institutions and institutional environment, data has been collected mainly by in-depth interviews and is supported by secondary data. Research findings show that informal institutional arrangements are more important than formal arrangements and reputation and expertise of the other firm is more important than family-friendship connections as antecedents of trust.