Trust, relationship commitment and cooperative performance: supply chain management

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study the effects of team trust and individual trust on cooperative performance and to examine the role of relationship commitment. Design/methodology/approach – Statistical analysis on questionnaire data from 245 team members was used to assess relationship between trust, relationship commitment and cooperative performance. Findings – The results show that both the team trust and the individual trust are positively correlated with cooperative performance. The indirect effect of team trust on cooperative performance mediated by relationship commitment is significantly greater than its direct effect. However, the indirect effect of individual trust on cooperative performance mediated by relationship commitment is significantly less than its direct effect. Originality/value – Previous researches about the trust between teams focused on the team trust which did not match with the reality, especially in China, a country that thinks highly of interpersonal relationship. The paper first considers the effects of both the team trust and the individual trust on cooperative performance and compares these effects with the effects mediated by relationship commitment.