The dimensions and directionality of trust and their roles in the development of shared business-IS understanding

Shared understanding between the IS and business units has been identified as one of the key factors in successful utilization of IT, as there is considerable evidence in the literature linking IS shared business-IT understanding with increased IS use, increase IS unit success, and improved process and organizational performance. However, limited work has been done examining the factors that foster the development of business-IS shared understanding. While prior work suggest that trust is an important antecedent to shared understanding, the findings to date are based on a conceptualization of trust as a onedimensional construct. We extend the prior work under a richer (multidimensional) conceptualization of trust, one that is more faithful to the conceptualization of tust in the organizational literature. More specifically, we examine the differential effects of competence-based trust, integrity-based trust and benevolence-based trust on the level of shared understanding in the IS and business relationship. Our work also considers the directionality of trust in developing shared understanding as we examine the perceptions of trust from the perspective of the business unit as well as from the IS unit. We also consider the formal management structure by investigating the effect of joint IS governance between the IS and business units on the level of shared understanding, as well as the mediating role of mutual understanding. The research model is tested using dual survey techniques and focus is on the relationship between the business and IS units. Our findings suggest that integrity-based trust is by far the most significant factor. Specifically, we find that it is the businesses perspective of the IS units integrity which is the key trust factor that is associated with higher levels of shared understanding. We also find evidence that integrity-based trust mediates the relationship between joint IS governance and shared understanding. The implications of these findings for both research and practice are discussed.