Trust Trap? Self-Reinforcing Processes in the Constitution of Inter-Organizational Trust

Abstract

This chapter points to the peculiar nature of trust as a property of inter-organizational relations that may be desirable though not easily established, but also sometimes undesirable though hard to abandon. We argue that this is due to self-reinforcing processes that may be slow to get started but that tend to spiral up to levels that essentially lock organizations into their trust-based relationships, even when the trust has been jeopardized.