Structural Dimensions and Measurement of Trust Networks among Construction Project Participants

Abstract

The formation and stable existence of interorganizational trust and its network structure can promote the sustainable development of construction projects and thus become the core elements of the stakeholder relationship governance mechanism. However, existing research has not reached an agreement on the structural characteristics and key dimensions of trust networks, which makes it difficult to conduct in-depth empirical research on the degree of trust of all project participators. Based on social network theory, this study analyzes the connotation, dimension and measurement method of trust networks of project participants. The results show that the structure of trust networks can be divided into density and centralization. Among them, the trust network’s density reflects the universality and stability of the trust relationship between the participants, while centralization mainly reflects the heterogeneity of the trust relationship.