Studied Trust: Building New Forms of Cooperation in a Volatile Economy

Abstract

The understandings of individuality and sociability characteristic of modern liberal and sociological social theory are fatalistic about the potential for the creation of trust in economic relations. These understandings are reconsidered in light of the recent evolution of state-level industrial policy in the United States, focusing on the experience of the state of Pennsylvania where the state's efforts have shown early success in breaking down barriers of mistrust that block economic adjustment in the state's traditional manufacturing industries. Arguing that the sort of cooperation-in-the-making that characterizes the Pennsylvania case is ill-captured by mainstream theory, the paper proffers a notion of studied or vigilant trust based on the core conclusions of 20th century analytic philosophy as a way of squaring theory and stylized facts. Government-instigated discussion among key economic actors has the potential to spur reformulations of collective identities and common histories, resulting in the creation of new avenues of potentially trusting economic relations.

Stereotype Threat in the Marketplace: Consumer Anxiety and Purchase Intentions

“…Nonetheless, the measures in this research for tapping into consumer anxiety could use further refinement. The current measure on consumer anxiety might overlap with related constructs such as mistrust toward transaction partners (Kelley and Thibaut 1978), lack of confidence in fair transactions (Sabel 1993), or fear of being perceived as incompetent (Steele and Aronson 1995). Given that consumer anxiety can play a role in making marketplace decisions (Vohs et al 2007), a fruitful area of exploration would be to distinguish consumer anxiety from related constructs and assess consumer anxiety with refined measurement items.…”

Swift Neighbors and Persistent Strangers: A Cross‐Cultural Investigation of Trust and Reciprocity in Social Exchange

“…However, even in the group and strangers exchanges, amounts sent deviate far from equilibrium predictions of no exchange-suggesting that motivations for trust move beyond pure selfinterest. Perhaps the positive amounts sent in the group and strangers conditions are motivated, as suggested by Sabel (1993), by trusting in a shared sense of community with a common fate.…”

Determinants of trust in supplier relations: Evidence from the automotive industry in Japan and the United States

“…Here, he appears to conflate the absence of continuous calculation with the absence of monitoring. In inter-organizational trust, as in some marriages and friendships, trust tends to be associated with periodic intense mutual observation (Sahel, 1992, Lorenz 1993. But this does not necessarilyimplythatall firms are always calculating benefits and costs of each action they take with respect to another firm.…”