Technology-Related Trust Issues in Inter-Organizational Business Relations

The emergence of inter-organizational system has facilitated easy and fast flow of information among the trading partners. This has affected the business relations among the trading parties involved. Though the inter-organizational systems have helped a lot in improving the business relations, the vulnerability and the virtual environment of such systems raise the issues of trust that may affect the long-term business relations. This chapter makes an attempt to empirically examine the relationship between the levels of assurance with regard to deployment and implementation of relevant technology tools in addressing the identified technology-related trust issues and ultimately enhancing the perceived level of trust in inter-organizational business relations. The empirical evidence presented in this chapter is based on a survey of 106 Indian companies using inter-organizational systems for managing their business relations.