Roles and Trust in Interorganizational Systems

While trust is widely acknowledged as to be important for the efficient operation of interorganizational business arrangements, the formation of trust remains challenging. In this paper we discuss the trust building potential of inter-firm coordination roles as organizational means in virtual organizations. Thus, we introduce the coordination role concept and proceed by defining three different dimensions of trust in dynamic business networks to explain the role’s effects: (1) network trust, (2) trust in coordination roles, and (3) the specific interorganizational trust. The work of two sociologists Coleman and Giddens – serve as a basis for our assumption that coordination roles positively influence overall trust in virtual organizations. We conclude with a discussion of factors contributing to the perceived trustworthiness of roles and their occupants, which is necessary for the functioning of the concept.