Understanding the Constitution of Interorganizational Trust*

Abstract Trust is a social phenomenon which makes work within organizations easier and collaboration among organizations possible. Specifically in a world of increasing uncertainty and complexity, flat hierarchies, more participative management styles, and increased professionalism, trust is thought to be a more appropriate mechanism for controlling organizational life than hierarchical power or direct surveillance (e.g. Fox 1974 and, for more recent sources, Heisig and Littek 1995; Hosmer 1995; Zaheer and Venkatraman 1995; Lane and Bachmann 1996). Beyond intraorganizational trust, the increasingly close collaboration among organizations as in cases of joint research and development, just-in-time delivery or relationship market ing requires trust among organizations, that is interorganizational trust (Dodgson 1993).