Trust based rationalism

The theoretical literature on supply chain collaboration is diversified representing multiple perspectives. The diverse literature reflects the versatile nature of supply chain collaboration involving a variety of motives and objectives (Barringer and Harrison 2000 Hitt 2011 Verdecho et al. 2012 Fawcett et al. 2012). This study examines supply chain collaboration from multiple perspectives (1) technical-economic perspective, e.g. uncertainty reduction, transaction cost economics, resource based view, relational view, and extended resource based view (2) sociopolitical perspective, e.g. resource dependence theory, social exchange theory, and social dilemma theory (3) trust based rationalism and (4) learning and knowledge perspective. These multiple perspectives provide us with insights into the nature, forms, contents, and forces of supply chain collaboration. 

Trust based rationalism (TBR) employs a behavioral assumption of trustworthiness, fair play, responsibility, and altruism instead of betrayal, self-interest, and opportunism. It focuses on collaboration and cooperation rather than politics and conflicts as the primary interaction modes. Trust, relationship, and social capital are the key concepts in TBR. Trust is viewed as a critical determinant in establishing a relational mode of governance structure (Kumar et al. 1998). Continuing supply chain collaboration is based more on tmst and equity than on monitoring and control capabilities (Kim et al. 2005). 

Collaborative culture is considered as another important antecedent variable with four subcomponents collectivism, long term orientation, power symmetry, and uncertainty avoidance. Collectivism and long term orientation are identified based on trust based rationalism. Power symmetry is viewed from resource dependence theory and social exchange theory. Uncertainty avoidance is evaluated based on transaction cost economics. 

In explaining the important role of trust in supply chain collaboration, transaction cost economics argues that trust mitigates the probability of a firm s opportunistic behavior, which accounts for the risk in supply chain collaboration. As a complementary explanation, trust based rationalism also identifies trust as the indispensable antecedent to supply chain collaboration. In contrast to the negative assumption of transaction cost economics, tmst based rationalism argues there are some supply chain partners who take the assumption of trustworthiness rather than... 

Fourth, this research has provided a theoretical framework that identifies characteristics, antecedents, and consequences of lOS enabled supply chain collaboration. The conceptual model was built based on the review of a wide range of literature, incorporating appropriate features of interorganizational models from different perspectives (i.e., transaction cost economics, resource-based view, resource dependence theory, social exchange theory, trust-based rationalism, and knowledge perspective). By blending multiple theoretical perspectives, a full-round picture of supply chain collaboration has been painted. The framework has provided a foundation for future research. The framework can be used to study both collaboration formation and ongoing collaboration evaluation and maintenance to further enrich the collaboration theory. 

---