Trust and Transactions: Transaction Cost Analysis with a Differential Behavioral Assumption

摘要

Two kinds of trust can meaningfully be distinguished: situational trust and behavioral trust. The first kind of trust is associated with characteristics of (the context of) a transaction, the second kind of trust with characteristics of the transacting parties. The possibility of situational trust is already implied in received transaction cost economics (TCE). The incorporation of behavioral trust however calls for the adoption of an assumption of differential opportunism, which is not a part of received TCE. Differences in opportunism associated with behavioral characteristics of a firm can be assumed to stem from differences in reputation, or from differences in institutionalized behavior within organizations. If a differential opportunism assumption is adopted, new hypotheses can be generated, that cannot be derived from received TCE.