DETERMINANTS OF TRUST IN SUPPLIER RELATIONS - EVIDENCE FROM THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY IN JAPAN AND THE UNITED-STATES

This study examines the determinants of inter-organizational trust by using survey data from over 1000 suppliers in the automotive industry. Drawing on transaction cost economics, game theory and sociological e xchange theory, we define trust and derive a model of its determinants . Regression analysis results indicate that determinants of trust are different from determinants of opportunism. US-Japanese differences ar e found in three respects: (i) the way trust is conceptualised by supp liers is more complex in Japan than in the US; (ii) the level of trust is higher in Japan than in the US; and (iii) the factors facilitating trust and those attenuating opportunism differ in the US and Japan. ( C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.