Understanding the Influence of National Culture on the Development of Trust

Abstract

Increasingly, researchers from a variety of business disciplines are finding that trust can lower transaction costs, facilitate interorganizational relationships, and enhance manager-subordinate relationships. At the same time, we see a growing trend toward globalization—in establishing alliances, managing and hiring employees, and entering new markets. These trends suggest a need to view the concept of trust from the perspective of national culture. Drawing on theories from several disciplines, we develop a framework that identifies and describes five cognitive trust-building processes that help explain how trust develops in business contexts. We include a series of research propositions demonstrating how societal norms and values influence application of the trust-building processes, and we discuss implications for theory and practice.