Building trust -- Evidence from Vietnamese entrepreneurs

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2008.03.004 Byline: Thang V. Nguyen (a), Jerman Rose (b) Keywords: Trust; Institutional theory; Social exchange theory; Vietnam Abstract: In the context of underdeveloped market institutions, entrepreneurs in a transition economy are forced to rely on trust-based partnerships. In the absence of effective market institutions and sufficient elapsed time, these entrepreneurial firms find a great need to actively and intentionally develop trust with their partners. The current literature, however, has virtually overlooked the possibility of trust being intentionally developed in interfirm relationships. This study develops a model that links trust development strategies, trust, and interfirm collaboration, and reports an empirical test of that model in Vietnam. The results support the general thesis that trust can be intentionally developed to facilitate interfirm relationships. Author Affiliation: (a) NEU Business School, National Economics University, 207 Giai Phong Road, Hanoi, Viet Nam (b) College of Business and Economics, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164-4851, United States Article History: Received 24 January 2007; Revised 28 March 2008; Accepted 31 March 2008 Article Note: (footnote) [star] The authors thank Rico Lam, Ngoc T.B. Le, the journal editor Philip Phan and two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on an earlier draft of this paper.