A model for trust building: The state, market, and cultural norms in Sino-Chilean economic exchange (original) (raw)

International business and trust: The Sino-Chilean experience

There is academic consensus that trust facilitates economic cooperation since it helps to mobilize resources, acts as a mechanism to cope with uncertainty, diminishes transaction costs and reduces system complexity. In cross-cultural management, trust has been acknowledged as a facilitator of economic relations. Nevertheless, its nature, definition and sources are still debated from antagonistic and sometimes exclusive perspectives. Additionally, trust research has been pointed out as acontextual, which limits trust understanding across the cultures that interact in a global economy. This article attempts to enrich this debate by analysing the sources of trust within a cross-cultural case study: the Sino-Chilean economic exchange. Using a qualitative methodology, and based on empirical research, the article examines the contextual setting in which the Sino-Chilean relationship is embedded and proposes sinicization as an alternative source for trust, understood here as a rationally driven, restricted form of cultural adaptation adopted by the weakest party in the relationship, which is able to embrace different perspectives on trust building.

Mexico, China, and the Politics of Trust

2015

Described by political scientists as a necessary condition for efficiency, productivity, and prosperity, trust has become a precept of good governance with global reach. The concept is often marshaled to support a conservative political agenda of state retrenchment and market deregulation. Proponents of this agenda argue that the natural inclination of private actors to trust and cooperate with each other is undermined by government monitoring and compliance regulations. The evidence from Mexico points to an alternative conclusion: when carefully targeted, state support to private actors has strengthened rather than impeded trusting relationships between suppliers, customers, and investors. Commercial competition with China raises an urgent challenge for Mexico's government: to broaden the scope of its assistance beyond a narrow set of elite firms to small and medium-sized enterprises, including those of the resident Chinese community.

Relational trust in international cooperation: The case of North–South trade negotiations

The positive impact of trust on the willingness to cooperate has been widely recognised within social sciences. Trust, however, has not been adequately incorporated into the dominant paradigms on explaining international cooperation in international relations. This paper argues that in situations of uncertainty, trusting or mistrusting a cooperation partner influences the negotiating behaviour of state actors. Trusting behaviour is understood to be based on a non-rational mode of reasoning, which shapes negotiating behaviour beyond the cognitive calculation of risks in a given situation. Whether or not the other actor is considered as trustworthy depends to a large extent on the conception of the identity relationship between the cooperation partners. This is suggestive of a constructivist understanding of trust as a relational, identity-based concept that is difficult to capture using a measurable, calculative notion of trust employed in a game- theoretical, strictly rationalist framework. The article presents two conceptual lenses: benevolence-based trust and identification-based trust. The empirical analysis covers evidence from two of the six regions that were negotiating an Economic Partnership Agreement with the European Union: West Africa and the Caribbean region. Journal of Trust Research 5:1, 2015

EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT, TRUST AND EAST–WEST TRADE

A model of trust and commitment in international inter-firm alliances in conditions of legal uncertain-ty/hostility is presented with propositions for testing. Conditions in four Central and East European countries are profiled with respect to varying legal environments and the potential effects of those environments on foreign investment and cooperation.

Modelling Trade and Trust Across Cultures

2006

Misunderstandings arise in international trade due to difference in cultural background of trade partners. Trust and the role it plays in trade are influenced by culture. Considering that trade always involves working on the relationship with the trade partner, understanding the behaviour of the other is of the essence. This paper proposes to involve cultural dimensions in the modelling of trust in trade situations. A case study is presented to show a conceptualisation of trust with respect to the cultural dimension of performance orientation versus cooperation orientation.

Inter-firm Trust between Emerging Markets: Chinese Firms in Africa

Journal of Macromarketing, 2019

The rapid global expansion of marketers from one emerging market to another such as countries in Africa, Latin America, Central Asia, and the Middle East is dramatically changing the landscape of international business relationships. A leading example is Chinese firms in African countries. The element of trust is highlighted in such emerging market relationships that involve large investments from multiple constituents with diverging and sometimes conflicting objectives. Our study provides a broader, more encompassing macromarketing framework by investigating inter-firm trust between two emerging markets from an institutional perspective. Our study develops the inter-firm trust concept in the context of Chinese businesses in Africa on the bases of extant literature, field interviews, and observations focused mainly on three African countries (Ghana, Kenya and South Africa). Drawing from trust theory and institutional theory, our study reveals three dimensions for the inter-firm trust concept and both trustor and trustee factors influence the perception of Chinese businesses in Africa. Macromarketing and practical implications for building and managing inter-firm trust at a multi-level between emerging markets are also discussed.

Business relationships in China: lessons about deep trust

Asia Pacific Business Review, 2010

Trust is acknowledged as a central tenet of business relationships. Yet for all the attention it receives, rarely has trust been investigated in the Chinese business setting. This paper uses an emic approach to unearth some within-culture 'truths' about Chinese notions of trust in business exchange. The findings of this research suggest that deep trust (xinren), which is driven by reciprocal help and emotional bonding, is critical for doing business in China. A conceptual framework is provided to assist Western businesspersons to better understand the Chinese concept of trust as well as the interplay between its key antecedents.

A Conceptualization of Trust in International Relations

European Journal of International Relations, 2002

This article provides a conceptualization of trust in interstate relations in terms amenable to research. In the field of International Relations trust is often equated with the willingness to take risks on the behavior of others. However, this approach is problematic because it does not provide a basis for distinguishing between trusting and non-trusting relationships. In contrast, I propose that trust implies a willingness to take risks on the behavior of others based on the belief that potential trustees will `do what is right'. Recognizing that trust involves particular beliefs about the motivations of others distinguishes it from the broader category of risk and enables trusting relationships to be identified more precisely. After elaborating my definitional approach, I discuss indicators designed to gauge the presence of trusting interstate relations in empirical settings.