Interdependence and network-level trust in supply chain networks: A computational study

Abstract

We investigate the impact of the supply chain interdependence structure on network-level trust in the supply chain (i.e., supply chain trust). We adopt an opportunism-based definition of trust, according to which trust and opportunism are the opposite of one another, and conceptualize the supply chain as a complex adaptive system (CAS). We thus employ the NK framework to model the supply chain network as a set of interdependent partners (and their decisions) interacting among each other according to a specific pattern reflecting the overall supply chain interdependence structure. In particular, we argue that supply chain networks can reveal in practice the 10 patterns identified by Rivkin and Siggelkow (2007) in a recent study on patterned interactions in complex systems. Thus, we perform computational analysis to evaluate, for each considered interdependence pattern, the risk of opportunism by the participating firms, which allows us to compare the patterns on the level of supply chain trust. We show that supply chain trust is a positive (negative) function of the number of uninfluenced (uninfluential) partners, that are, partner firms whose decisions are not influenced by (do not influence) the decisions made by the remaining partners. We also find that, for each examined pattern, the higher the degree of interdependence in the supply chain, the lower supply chain trust.