Trust-based Networks Research Articles

Partners Forever? An Empirical Study of Relational Ties in Two Small-firm Clusters

Many researchers take as axiomatic the proposition that economic action in clusters is embedded in dense, durable and trust-based social networks. It is suggested here that the bias towards high-trust, enduring relations obscures the competitive dynamics of networks, even where co-operation can be identified. Drawing attention to the competitive motives underlying the construction of social networks, an investigation is made into the duration and brokering of dyadic relations in business owners’ advice networks. The analysis of 668 dyadic ties in a population of 113 small business owners in two textile and clothing clusters in Germany reveals considerable variation in the duration of social relations and the likelihood that they were formed through third-party brokers, many of whom were direct competitors creating more ephemeral links. The findings suggest that ‘marketless’ conceptions of social networks in clusters need to be balanced with a stronger concern for the role of competition in the social embeddedness of small firms.

Bridging Racial Change: Political Orientations in the United States Evangelical Multiracial Church Movement

AbstractRecent years have witnessed the rise of a multiracial church (MRC) movement in American evangelicalism. Leaders of this movement articulate a “biblical mandate”-based mission for breaking patterns of racial homogeneity in pursuit of more diverse, egalitarian, and vibrant churches. While participants are passionate about what they see as a powerful racial change effort in their religious communities, they express a variety of orientations about the potential political implications of faith-based MRC-building. Drawing from interview-based research inside MRC settings, I find that most participants are nervously interested in applying their framework to political contexts, while a minority articulates a more politicized justice orientation, and others are confused or actively resistant. The movement's political reluctance is instructive of the understudied dynamics between race and religion, especially in theologically conservative churches. In social capital terms, the “bonding” incentives of MRC settings by definition require difficult kinds of “bridging,” or reaching across deep historical and identity-based differences, in order to create trust-based networks where they have not existed. When successful, however, such networks can open new paths to race-related political engagement.

애드혹 환경에서 평판기반 신뢰 모델의 분류 및 성능평가

신뢰 기반 네트워크에서 상호 통신 연결을 위해 상대 노드가 얼마나 믿을만한 노드 인지를 결정하는 문제가 가장 중요하다. 현재의 신뢰 기반 네트워크에서는 노드의 상태를 관찰함으로써 신뢰 값을 생성하고, 통신 노드를 평가하는 과정을 통해 상호 통신 연결을 수립한다. 본 논문에서는 애드혹 환경에서 새로운 노드가 클러스터 내로 진입하여 통신을 설정하고자 하는 대상 노드를 찾을 때, 사용될 수 있는 4가지의 신뢰모델을 제안한다. 제안된 모델들은 평판 서버의 유무와 신뢰의 평가 방법들에 따라 분류 되었다. 제안된 모델을 통해서, 평판 서버가 클러스터내에 존재하고 신뢰 평가 시 자신의 경험 정보뿐만 아니라 이웃 노드의 평판을 고려하는 경우 더 신속하게 대상 노드를 찾을 수 있음을 보인다. 제안된 모델의 성능 분석은 각 모델에서 노드의 최종 신뢰 값을 생성하기 위해 소요 되는 통신지연시간의 측정에 초점을 맞추었다. In trust-based networks, it is very important how to decide a node is trustworthy when one node performs communications with other node. In current networks based on trust, a node creates a new trust value from observation and then establishes an intercommunication path through the process of evaluating a targeted communication node. In our paper, we propose four trust models in which a new node enters a cluster and finds a target node to create a communication in ad-hoc networks. The proposed models have been classified according to the existence of reputation server and the trust evaluation functions. Through the proposed model, we found that new node finds target node more quickly in which there exists a reputation server in the cluster and considers neighbor node's recommendation as well as own experience information when calculates trust values. As our performance analysis, we focus the communication delay time to generate a final trust value for each trust model.

Separate but equal? The gendered nature of social capital in rural Philippine communities

AbstractThis paper explores the gender dimensions of group membership and social networks using a unique longitudinal data set from the rural Philippines. We investigate two types of social capital: membership in groups, or ‘formal’ social capital, and size of trust‐based networks or ‘informal’ social capital. Because men and women may have different propensities to invest in social capital, we analyse the determinants of group membership for men and women separately. We also disaggregate the analysis by type of group. The paper also examines the determinants of the density of social capital, proxied by the number of groups and the number of network members. Finally, it explores whether groups contribute to increased sizes of social networks. We find that men and women do not differ significantly in their probability of participating in groups or the number of groups they join. However, there are clear gender differences in the types of groups to which men and women belong. We also find that group membership does not, in general, increase network density. The size of one's informal networks is influenced by the location and migration decisions of one's sons and daughters, suggesting that sons and daughters play different roles in providing support to their households of origin. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Trust and Social Collateral*

This paper builds a theory of trust based on informal contract enforcement in social networks. In our model, network connections between individuals can be used as social collateral to secure informal borrowing. We define network-based trust as the largest amount one agent can borrow from another agent and derive a reduced-form expression for this quantity, which we then use in three applications. (1) We predict that dense networks generate bonding social capital that allows transacting valuable assets, whereas loose networks create bridging social capital that improves access to cheap favors such as information. (2) For job recommendation networks, we show that strong ties between employers and trusted recommenders reduce asymmetric information about the quality of job candidates. (3) Using data from Peru, we show empirically that network-based trust predicts informal borrowing, and we structurally estimate and test our model.

Governance for quality management in tropical food chains

This paper provides a framework that focuses on the linkages between several key dimensions of supply chain organisation and performance of perishable tropical food products. The focus is on the relationship between governance regime and quality management, however, two other related variables are also taken into account because they impact this relationship: channel choice and value added distribution in the supply chain. Governance regimes focus on how to enhance coordination and trust amongst supply chain partners and how to reduce transaction costs. Quality management deals with how to manage food technology processes such that required quality levels can be improved and variability in quality of natural products can be exploited. Governance regimes in relation to quality management practices are discussed to the extent that supply chain partners are able, or are enabled, to invest in required quality improvements. Reduction of transaction costs, creation of trust-based networks and proper trade-offs between direct and future gains may offer substantial contributions to effective quality management and enforcement. This framework has been applied to nine case studies about food supply chains originating from developing countries (Ruben et al., 2007). Three of these case studies are summarised in this paper to illustrate what challenges can be derived from this study. These selected case studies concern fish caught in Kenya, mangoes grown in Costa Rica and vegetables produced in China.

The application of social network analysis to identify trust-based networks in construction

The role of trust has been identified as a central influencer on the performance of project teams in both research and policy contexts, to an extent that it is almost taken for granted. However, actually identifying where trust exists and how it impacts project performance is less common. The partnering literature considers trust important, yet it struggles to deal with a portmanteau concept such as trust, which includes many different inter-related concepts. A two-year trust study of trust in the construction sector, The Trust in Construction Project, looked to identify where trust existed in different relationships and how this impacted specific project performance. The application of Social Network Analysis (SNA) in construction project teams has been undertaken, however the consideration of trust to the structure of project relationships gives a different structure than one might see when analysing contractual or quantitative flows of information. This was supported by case study analysis to inform the quantitative data.

Sales Work under Marketization: The Social Relations of the Cash Nexus?

In lightly regulated economies many jobs are becoming subject to a process of ‘marketization’ involving an externalization of the employment relationship in the context of intensified product market competition. At the same time, a number of front-line jobs are becoming redefined to encompass more proactive sales aims. This study examines two sites at an intersection of these trends — sites where financial service jobs have been marketized and redefined to revolve around proactive sales activity. It examines the key social relations of the sales workers — relations with managers, immediate colleagues, back-office staff, customers and referrers — in considering how far marketization leads to the social relations of the cash nexus along bare market principles. It is found that one group of workers is enmeshed in a dehumanized, instrumental and antagonistic set of relations, while another, smaller, group of workers is insulated against such relations by the functioning of tight trust-based referral networks. It is concluded that the texture of the social relations of sales work under marketization is centrally influenced by the social constitution of the specific product market in which sales workers act. In addition, it is argued that the process of marketization tends to corrode the factors that support the functioning of tight trust-based networks.

Trust, Social Networks and the Informal Economy: A Comparative Analysis

In this study we will attempt to show that trust is a cultural concept that should be ethnographically described, as its meaning varies according to the culture of each society and in every particular situation. Trust is a central component of social solidarity and the cement used to produce cohesion within the social networks composing the structure of society. Social networks based on trust might allow individuals to cope with the imperfections of a given socioeconomic system (state or market dominated), but they might also serve to erode the institutional framework of states by facilitating less desirable transactions (corruption). Hence, social networks may have positive connotations for those who benefit from having social networks or negative consequences both for individuals that lack such networks and for the formal institutions of society. To understand the complex variations in the construction and political impact of these social networks we analyze its role in the informal economy of three different socioeconomic systems. Following our previous studies, (Lomnitz 1971; 1988) we will discuss the importance of social networks based on trust and loyalty for the economic and social survival of the middle class in Chile. We will compare it to the informal economy in the former Soviet Union and, finally, drawing from literature on post-socialist societies, we will discuss the role of social networks in the transition to a market economy. In Latin America social networks have become the means on which informal activities take place allowing the poor to survive physically and the middle and upper classes to maintain their social status and privileges. In communism, the use of personal connections (social networks) has been recognized as a central strategy to satisfy shortages derived from the inefficiencies of the system, and as an important legacy with tremendous consequences for the post-socialist regimes that followed. In this article, we attempt to show the universality and persistence of trust-based networks as well as its socio-cultural embeddedness and the ambivalent consequences they have on state and society.

The Evolution of Post-socialist Projects: Trajectory Shift and Transitional Capacity in a Polish Region

Existing perspectives on the social and institutional underpinnings of regional economic performance lack an account of how regions in post-socialist or developing countries lacking embedded, cohesive, trust-based networks could organize to transform themselves. This paper shows how provisional, contingent post-socialist projects--in opposition to more stable firm, market or network forms of organization--temporarily drawing together sets of actors from diverse organizational environs can enable regions to overcome social impediments to development. Drawing on an in-depth field study of the _ ód old industrial district in central Poland, the first part of this paper demonstrates the projectification of regional restructuring efforts and links it to regional trajectory shift embodied in a variety of far-reaching industrial, institutional and social transformations. The second part of the paper explores the question of how trajectory shift could have occurred in _ ód , despite the lack of incremental interactive learning across project stages. The region is shown to possess a distinctive transitional capacity producing learning by switching in which contingent collective projects are continually and competitively generated across stages to deal with the myriad practical restructuring problems facing regional firms and institutions. Des perspectives existantes des fondements sociaux et institutionnels de la performance économique régionale manquent un compte-rendu de la fac¸on dont les régions des pays postsocialistes ou en voie de développement qui manquent de réseaux ancrés, cohésifs et fondés sur la notion de confiance, pourraient se transformer. Cet article cherche àdémontrer comment des projets post-socialistes, aléatoires, provisoires - par rapport aux formes d'organisation plus stables, fondées sur les notions d'entreprise, de marché ou de réseau - rapprochant temporairement des ensembles d'acteurs des milieux organisationnels différents, permettent aux régions de surmonter les entraves au développement. Puisant dans des études sur le terrain approfondies du vieux district industriel de Lódz situé dans la Pologne centrale, la première partie de cet article démontre la restructuration régionale sous forme de projets et la relie au déplacement de trajectoire régional qui s'incarne dans une gamme de transformations industrielles, institutionnelles et sociales de grande portée. La deuxième partie de l'article examine comment le déplacement de trajectoire aurait pu avoir lieu à Lódz, malgré l'absence d'apprentissage interactif cumulatif à divers étapes du projet. Il s'avère que la région a une capacité de transition pertinente qui produit un apprentissage par glissement, où des projets collectifs subordonnés sont engendrés de façon continue et compétitive à divers étapes afin de traiter de nombreux problèmes de restructuration pratiques auxquels les entreprises et les organismes régionaux font face. In den dominierenden Perspektiven zu den gesellschaftlichen und institutionellen Grundlagen regionalwissenschaftlicher 'Performance' mangelt es an Vorstellungen, wie Regionen in sozialistischen oder Entwicklungsländern, denen kohäsive, vertrauensbasierte Netzwerke fehlen, Transformationsprozesse erfolgreich gestalten können. Dieser Aufsatz zeigt auf, wie nach dem Sozialismus initiierte Übergangsprojekte - im Gegensatz zu etablierteren Organisationsformen, die auf Firmen, Märkten oder Netzwerken beruhen - es Regionen ermöglichen können, gesellschaftliche Barrieren der Entwicklung zu überwinden, indem sie vorübergehend Akteure aus unterschiedlichen organisatorischen Kontexten zusammenbringen. Mit Hilfe einer detaillierten Feldstudie des alten Industriegebiets von Lodz im Zentrum Polens zeigt der erste Teil dieses Aufsatzes die projektförmige Organisation regionaler Bemühungen zur Umstrukturierung. Dabei werden diese Bemühungen mit den regionalen Trajektorienwechseln verknüpft, wie sie in einer Vielfalt von weitreichenden industriellen, institutionellen und gesellschaftlichen Transformationen verkörpert wird. Der zweite Teil des Aufsatzes untersucht die Frage, wie in Lodz ein Trajektorienwechsel möglich war, obschon es an sukzessiven und interaktiven Lernprozessen während aller Etappen des Projekts mangelte. Es wird gezeigt, dass die unübersehbaren Transformationsleistungen der Region auf einem 'learning by switching' basieren. Dabei werden in einem fortwährenden Wettbewerb kollektive regionale Projekte entwickelt, um mit den unzähligen praktischen Umstrukturierungsproblemen fertig zu werden, denen sich Firmen und Institutionen der Region gegenübersehen.

Trust or Hierarchy? Changing Relationships Between Large and Small Firms in France

An influential position in the contemporary study of industrial reorganisation discusses the construction of inter-firm trust as a way to adjust the organisation of firms to the flexibility required by the market. The conventional picture of the relation between large firms in France and small firms who supply them, suggests that it is very hard for them to construct such trust-based networks. Instead, it is one of atomised sub-contracting: the large firm gives very detailed specifications for the job that needs to be done, and the subcontractor executes. In recent years, however, several accounts have suggested that this arms-length relationship between larger firms and suppliers is changing.