From Trust Convergence to Trust Divergence: Trust Development in Conflictual Interorganizational Relationships
研究组织间关系中信任分化的现象，通过纵向案例揭示注意视角转换和参照分类两种机制如何导致信任发展模式的不连续性，并指出信任分化在冲突情境下对协作的积极意义。
Whereas extant research on trust in interorganizational relationships tends to focus on trust convergence – i.e. members of one focal firm developing similar trust perceptions toward a partner firm – we shift focus to trust divergence – i.e. members of one focal firm developing different trust perceptions toward a partner firm. To explore trust divergence, we conduct an inductive, longitudinal study of one interorganizational relationship characterized by mutual transgressions. We identify shifts in attentional perspectives and referent categorizations as two novel mechanisms for theorizing trust development in interorganizational relationships. In particular, we develop a process model illuminating how these two mechanisms can contribute to trust development patterns in interorganizational relationships that are more discontinuous than existing models would predict. Moreover, we highlight the constructive implications of trust divergence for interorganizational collaboration in the presence of transgression and conflict.