| Abstract |
Some researches insist that, to participate in an e-partnership, a distributor needs a given level of trust to reduce the perceived risk of an e-partnership to his/her own threshold. However, other researches insist that if a distributor has only a given level of trust in his/her suppliers, irrelevant of the perceived risk level, he/she participates in the e-partnership. Thus, the perspective of a distributor, this study built a trust model in which these two viewpoints were reflected. And then this study examined whether or not perceived risk mediates an influence of trust to e-partnership. The proposed trust model was tested with 265 questionnaires about a distributor-supplier e-partnership in food wholesale markets. The analysis results indicated that perceived risk partially had a mediating effect between trust and e-partnership intention. That is, of the two risk types, only perceived performance risk mediated an influence competence trust to e-partnership intention. Relational risk did not play a mediating role between goodwill trust and e-partnership intention. This result implies two managerial meanings. First, a distributor intends to engage in e-partnership with his/her supplier, irrelevant of relational risks level if goodwill trust level surpasses his/her own threshold. Thus, suppliers should concentrate more effort in developing goodwill trust than in reducing relational risk. To develop goodwill trust, they should endeavor to establish mutual interests and individual trust with their distributor, and to utilize institutional trust bases. Second, a distributor requires a certain competence in his/her suppliers to sufficiently reduce performance risk caused by e-partnership. Thus, to develop competence trust in e-partnership, suppliers should improve on any lack of competence and build a good reputation. |
