The Impact of Interaction Patterns on Trust in Supply Chain Networks

Establishing trust across organizational boundaries is critical to achieve supply chain effectiveness. We focus on the impact the interdependence structure of supply chain alliance networks exerts on inter-organizational trust across the network. We draw on previous literature on complex systems to model supply chain alliance networks in terms of ten different interdependence patterns (i.e., random; small-world; local; block-diagonal; preferential attachment; scale free, centralized; dependent; hierarchical; and diagonal). Then, we employ the NK model to compare the ten structures in terms of the risk of opportunistic behaviors by the participating organizations. Results show that the centralized structure is associated with the highest level of opportunism (i.e. lowest level of trust), whereas the dependent structure is associated with the lowest level of opportunism (i.e., highest level of trust).