Managing trust relationships: calculative, affective, belief and performance

Abstract

There is an ongoing concern among managers and scholars: how can firms develop trust and achieve performance? Our paper aims to review the emerging perspective of trust and propose mechanisms to build trust in channel relationships. In the literature, we identified six mechanisms: calculative, affective, belief, embeddedness, continuity and capability. A central hypothesis focuses on the direct impact of these mechanisms on firm performance. We conducted a survey (n=132) in the Brazilian Distribution Market of agrochemical products. OLS regression estimation was employed to test the hypothesis. Results show the impact of the mechanisms of calculative, affective, belief on performance. The findings highlight that, even though environment leads to suspicion and doubts, managers seek trust relationships and try to develop them using a combination of few mechanisms to overcome difficulties and perform well.