Trust as the antecedent of strategic choices from a relational view perspective
Dagmara Lewicka, Agnieszka Zakrzewska- Bielawska
AGH University of Science and Technology
Lodz Technical University
Abstract
Relational view perspective explains and gives theoretical foundations to understand why organizations create and develop relationships and networks. The relational management context leads to research on the essence of the relational strategy of enterprises and the strategic choices made within it. It is indicated that the key choices around which the content of the relational strategy is played includes: the goal, the partner, the inter-organizational dynamics and the way of creating relations. An important research problem is the identification of antecedents of strategic choices of enterprises. The attention of researchers in this context focuses on inter-organizational trust as one of the most important factors. Inter-organizational trust assumes that cooperating enterprises rely on themselves in the belief that each party will fulfill its obligations in a competent, honest and rational manner, generating mutual benefits. In addition, the partner will not behave opportunistically, but will fulfill the contract and take actions that the trusting party expects.Therefore, the purpose of the paper is to recognize the relationship between level of trust and its dimensions on strategic choices made within the enterprises relational strategy. The research was carried out on a representative sample of 400 enterprises operating in Poland and on international markets, which is representative of the company-s size. The research results confirmed the important role of inter-organizational trust as an antecedent of strategic choices. It plays an important role in the process of selecting partners for relationships and influences the way relationships are created.
Keywords: inter-organisational trust, relational view perspective, strategic choices
Topic: Management Strategic