Reflects the security one feels about a situation because of guarantees, safety nets and other structures (structural assurance), and the belief that things are normal and customary and that everything seems to be in proper order (situational normality) (McKnight et al., 1998).
Published in Chapter:
Trust and its Impersonal Nature
Miia Kosonen (Lappeenranta University of Technology, Finland), Kirsimarja Blomqvist (Lappeenranta University of Technology, Finland), and Riikka Ellonen (Lappeenranta University of Technology, Finland)
Copyright: © 2008
|Pages: 8
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-59904-885-7.ch222
Abstract
In the knowledge-based network economy, trust is becoming an increasingly important issue. Both economists (Arrow, 1974) and sociologists (Luhmann, 1979) have pointed at the role of trust as a lubricant in managing uncertainty, complexity, and related risks. Trust reduces transaction costs, and increases spontaneous sociability (see Creed & Miles, 1996; Kramer, 1999). Trust can also have a critical role in enhancing knowledge creation and transfer within the organizational context (Kogut & Zander, 1992; Grant, 1996). Trust is an intriguing and paradoxical issue: in the modern society we need trust more than ever, yet we have less natural opportunities for trust to evolve (Lahno, 2002; Blomqvist, 2005).