Determinants of Trust in Supplier Relations: Evidence from the Automotive Industry in Japan and the United States.

This study examines the determinants of interorganizational trust by using survey data from over 1,000 suppliers in the automotive industry. Drawing on transaction cost economics, game theory, and sociological exchange theory, the authors define trust and derive a model of its determinants. Regression analysis results indicate that determinants of trust are different from determinants of opportunism. U.S.-Japanese differences are found in three respects: (1) the way trust is conceptualized by suppliers is more complex in Japan than in the United States; (2) the level of trust is higher in Japan than in the United States; and (3) the factors facilitating trust and those attenuating opportunism differ in the United States and Japan