Trustworthiness as an Economic Asset
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important, and the more vulnerability possible with the supplier, employee, and
customer, the more likely the relationship is characterized by semistrong or strong
trust. Secondly, the variability in trustworthiness internal and external to the firm
is revealed. Varying degrees of strong trust dominate the internal employer-
employee relationship, whereas exchanges with suppliers and customers can
range widely depending on the identity of the party. Finally, Fig. 2 reveals the
variance or diversity in trustworthiness in business relationships across these six
small agribusiness firms.
Retail Nursery (Thirty-five Employees)
Office and management employees received strong-form trust rankings by this
owner/operator. But the potential for opportunistic behavior by sales clerks and
laborers is limited, so their transactions were ranked as weak-form trust. This
retail executive found no source of vulnerability with either his customers or his
suppliers. Customers numbered in the thousands and purchased relatively small
quantities of plant material and supplies throughout the year. All parties in the
transaction easily evaluated price and quality information. Similarly, the major
suppliers of plant material operated in a highly competitive commodity market
where the success of profitable opportunistic behavior was limited.
Wholesale Plant Nursery (Twenty-eight Employees)
The employees in this family-operated business shared similar business values
and goals with the owner-operator. Most of these workers were cross-trained to
work the sales counter, water plants, load trucks, make deliveries, or work in the
greenhouses. Vulnerability to opportunistic behavior was possible in the mind of
the executive, but strong employer-employee relationships reduced the probability
of occurrence. Customer trust rankings varied from strong-form for the most
important customer, a landscape contractor, to weak-form and semistrong-form
for retail nurseries and other landscapers. The opportunism of suppliers was
managed through informal and formal contracts where the interaction between
buyer and supplier was on a weekly basis with well established ex post facto
means for resolving conflict.
Dairy Farm (Seventeen Employees)
Again, important management employees, such as the dairy foreman, calf barn
attendants, and milking parlor shift supervisors, shared high levels of social
capital with the owner/operator to counteract opportunistic temptations. Other
employees, such as milkers, cow pushers, and feed truck drivers, were governed
by the market where expectations on both sides were understood and failure to
comply terminates the employment relationship. The dairy’s three customers, one
for milk and two for calves, ranged from contractual for fluid milk, strong-form