If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -The purpose of this paper is to develop an integrated conceptual trust building model for supply chain partners' relationships. It is based on the literature on trust building models from various disciplines. Design/methodology/approach -Various trust building concepts and models were reviewed and five widely referred trust building models were selected from the literature to analyze and integrate the views to develop an integrated conceptual model from supply chain partners' relationships point of view. Findings -The conceptual frame work suggests that trust is a sum of risk-worthy characteristics, risk-worthy rationale and risk-worthy institutional systems of supply chain members. Though the model represents the trust building process at dyadic level, the concept can simply be extended to any number of levels and perspectives.Research limitations/implications -The model has considered the trust building perspectives from supply chain partners' relationships point of view. The discussions of the model lead to empirically testable issues. Practical implications -The study results suggest that the supply chain members should strive to reduce the risk levels to build trust rather than striving to build trust to reduce the risk. As long as members' risk levels are within their bearable limits trust can be considered as a risk coping mechanism and when the risk levels exceed their bearable limits the subject of trust turns into risk management/security management. Originality/value -The trust building concepts developed through this model can be used by both practitioners and researchers on the subject of trust. However the model's application is not limited to supply chain management; it can be easily adapted to any discipline of management.

SummaryPurpose -The purpose of this paper is to develop a context dependent, multi perspective multilevel trust measurement instrument to measure supply chain members' trust.

Purpose -This paper seeks to identify the up-stream supply chain member's (manufacturers, suppliers, supplier's service providers) characteristics, economics, dynamic capabilities, technology and institutional perspectives of risk in relationship to develop a trust building model through risk evaluation and to address the issue: should a supply chain member strive to build the trust or strive to reduce the risk with its members and from which perspectives? Design/methodology/approach -A conceptual framework was developed considering five key perspectives (characteristics, economics, dynamic capabilities, technology and institutions) to evaluate the member's risk in relationship and derived the hypothesis from the framework. A survey was conducted in UAE packaged food industry upstream supply chain covering senior managers of 102 companies. Data were analysed using multiple regression analyses through SPSS. The selected supply chain members of this industry include packaged food products companies as manufacturers, packaging material converters as suppliers of packaging material to manufacturers and packaging raw material suppliers as supplier's suppliers of manufacturer. Findings -From the survey results it is found that characteristic and institutional risk perspectives influence significantly to initiate a trustworthy relationship. Economics, dynamic capabilities and technology risk perspectives play a significant role to maintain trust in relationship. No perspective of members is found to be significantly risk-free. Research limitations/implications -This study has identified the perspectives of risk that can initiate and build trust between supply chain members in the context of a global business environment with a strong institutional system. Further research is required to identify the supply chain member's riskworthy characteristics, threshold levels of risk bearing capacity and the extent to which the institutions can reduce the membership risk to build trust. Practical implications -The study results suggest that the supply chain members should strive to reduce the membership risk levels to build trust rather than striving to build trust to reduce the risk. As long as a member's risk levels are within their bearable limits trust can be considered as a risk coping mechanism and when the risk levels exceed their bearable limits the subject of trust turns into risk management/security management. Originality/value -This study may be one of the first to develop a trust building model through a risk evaluation process and also one of the first to study the trust in supply chain member's relationship in UAE. Findings from this research should prove useful to management researchers and practitioners.

Purpose -This paper seeks to empirically identify the major factors that influence physician loyalty behavior in prescribing certain brands of drugs. Design/methodology/approach -Testable hypotheses were developed with respect to physician loyalty behavior regarding drug prescription practices, and a survey questionnaire was designed to capture the data from 71 physicians, as a convenience sample. The hypotheses were tested by PLS path modeling. Findings -The major finding is that tangible rewards to physicians by the pharmaceutical companies lead to prescription loyalty. The second major finding is that the professional values of pharmaceutical sales representatives (PSR) impact significantly on physician prescription loyalty. The hypotheses related to the impact of PSR personality, drug quality, corporate reputation and professional influence on prescription loyalty were not supported in the study.Practical implications -The results should prove useful to pharmaceutical companies in developing physician loyalty to particular brands as well as enhancing the understanding of drug control authorities and governmental health policy makers, in controlling unethical medical practices by physicians. Originality/value -This paper reports an original empirical study on physician loyalty behavior in the context of drug prescription.

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to understand what breaks trust in a customer supplier relationship and how to repair it. Design/methodology/approach -The approach takes a single case study to test the established theories on trust. It captures the circumstances and conditions of everyday situation in business and it is a longitudinal study covering three years' experience of two organisations in business. Findings -The important findings of this case study are that knowledge, level of risk and level of risk tolerance of customers/suppliers are the main causes of trust break down. Though the research on trust focus on partner's characteristics such as benevolence, honesty, reliability, credibility, integrity, contracts, agreements etc., in the context of B2B relationship these perspectives can only help the partners in evaluating the other partner as trust worthy. Once the partners engage in the relationship the orientation will change towards perspectives of rational risk. If the risk level exceeds their bearable limits, trust will break. Trust repair depends on the convincing power of the trustees, and how and why the trustor should bear the uncertainty or risk involved in the relationship. Research limitations/implications -With its focus on two business partners this case cannot be generalised to all business settings. However, the in-depth analysis stimulates further research on how trust may break between partners and how and who (trustor/trustee) should initiate trust repair process. Practical implications -Practicing managers and research scholars can use this case in trust building process in customer supplier relationship. Originality/value -The paper presents a case that is original.