Trust: What It Is And What It Is Not

Abstract

Trust, whether it is interpersonal trust, organizational trust, or trust in exchange relationships, has drawn great attention from both business practitioners and scholars in recent years. Numerous studies have been done, but the meaning of trust seems to remain elusive. Few constructs have been defined in so many different ways resulting in much confusion. This research attempts to improve our understanding of the nature of trust through reviewing existing business literature on this construct. By comparing and contrasting different perspectives of defining trust, the paper argues that trust is not a calculated probability of the behavior of the party to be trusted, and neither is it ones willingness to risk vulnerability. Emphasizing the social or relational nature of trust, this paper defines trust as a choice, a decision to place ones confidence in others. Cognitive expectation (the calculated probability) and behavioral intention (the willingness to be vulnerable) are conceived as an antecedent and a consequence of trust respectively. Defined as such, the construct embraces trust at both personal level and the institutional level, including trust in organizational or exchange relationships; it is expected that this endeavor should contribute to our understanding of trust in both marketing and management fields.