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The purpose of the study is to examine key antecedent variables that affect buyers' relationship continuity intention and measure the relative importance of these key antecedent variables. It also aims to examine the mediating roles of an inter‐organizational trust (trust in supplier organization) and buyers' dependence in determining buyers' relationship continuity intention. To this effect, the paper groups the predictor variables of relationship continuity under two broad categories of factors, i.e. constraint‐based factors; and relationship building factors.

Data were collected from 137 steel buyers. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis was used to test the validity of the measures. The hypotheses were tested using structural equation modelling. The empirical tests included direct effect and mediating effects testing.

Trust in supplier was found to mediate the positive effects of communication and offer quality on buyers' relationship continuity intention. Trust in supplier was also found to mediate the negative effects of opportunistic behavior on buyers' relationship continuity intention. However, dependence on supplier does not predict buyers' relationship continuity intention.

The study indicates that it is the relationship building factors and not dependence‐based factors that predict relationship continuity intention of buyers in BtoB relationships. Offer quality aspect has the highest effect on trust in the supplier, pointing to fact that buyers also need tangible evidence to develop trust in the relationship. The study has covered the perception of buyers only and therefore the views can be one sided. Further, there might have been a tendency for the respondents to select a particular supplier with whom they have a good relationship.

Marketing managers of suppliers should try to develop trust‐based relationships rather than dependence‐based relationship with their buyers. In order to build trust in the BtoB relationship, the study suggests that steel suppliers should invest in both economic and behavioral aspect of transaction. Further, suppliers should put performance management systems in place in their organizations that do not encourage opportunistic behavior in their salespersons.

The study relates to inclusion of both behavioral and economic antecedents of trust. Most of the prior studies in BtoB buyer‐seller relationships have focused on behavioral or economic antecedents of trust, but rarely have both aspects been studied together. This study gives an empirical basis on which steel companies can base their BtoB marketing strategy.

We challenge the discontinuity (also called incompatibility) hypothesis of generalized and particularistic trust, suggesting that the two types of trust are incompatible. This view is problematic because if so, it remains unclear, for instance, how communities scoring high in particularistic trust can ever develop further when transferring trust to spheres outside the community is not an option. In this research, we explore the potential permeability of different types of trust in an emerging market context using the case of China.

Using a purposeful sampling technique, we gathered data among Chinese professionals (n = 290) in the Jingjinji Metropolitan Region in Tianjin. We analyzed the data by performing structural equation modeling.

As we identify interdependencies between generalized and particularistic types of trust, our results speak in favor of the continuity hypothesis. We find that the more people trust other people from an outside group (out-group trust), the less they trust quasi-familiar others (in-group trust). Further, in-group trust increases once the environment urges people to engage in informal network (guanxi)-based transactions.

Advancing the common view of China being a typical low-trust society, in which distrust in strangers (outsiders) prevails, we find a recent trend of an increase in general trust, which might lead to increases of out-group and in-group trust alike. Contrary to the wide spread idea that guanxi is declining in the present day, we find guanxi to be persistent.

Most research has emphasized the interpersonal components of trust involved in establishing ecommerce relationships while limited attention has been paid on the technology and its interactions on e‐commerce relationships. This paper examines the impact of two forms of trust in e‐commerce relationships namely; technology trust relating to institutional structural assurances and security mechanisms embedded in e‐commerce technologies; and relationship trust referring to trading partners competent, predictably, reliability, and benevolence in the e‐commerce relationship. Based on the findings of a previous study that examined inter‐organizational dyads in business‐to‐business e‐commerce participation, we identify and illustrate how e‐commerce relationships evolve applying four modes in e‐commerce relationships namely; learning, monitoring, collaborating and distancing modes. We develop a number of propositions to facilitate empirical testing and indicate the framework’s key implications for future research and managerial practice.

The purpose is to develop a work-integrated learning (WIL) model for university-society research collaboration facilitating societal impact toward short lag yet sustainable societal impact for local innovation.

The methodology applied was engaged scholarship based on a WIL approach involving a network of collaborating partners from different sectors of society and cross-disciplinary university researchers. Mixed data collection methods were applied.

Conceptualization of university-society research collaboration for local innovation is presented as a WIL model including the elements of continuity and commitment, coordination, communication and relationships, trust, courage and creativity and co-creation opportunities. Short lag societal impact as local innovation was identified as product and process innovations.

Further validation of the model is encouraged for the model to be viable in various contexts and to generate different kinds of societal impact.

The model may act as a governing tool for project management to facilitate co-creative and short lag societal impact for local innovation to ensure that engaged and learning activities are embedded in the collaborative process.

The model has implications for inclusiveness and co-creation fostering transparency, respect and mutuality in university-society research collaboration and to equate both academic and practice knowledge.

The conclusions drawn support the understanding of a WIL approach practicing engaged scholarship in research collaborations. The main theoretical and practical contributions of the article are the conceptual model for university-society research collaboration generating short lag societal implications and local innovation.

The purpose of this paper is to address the impact of affect (as opposed to cognition) on patient trust in high‐consequence exchanges. The authors also investigate the mediator's role of trust in the relationship between affect and cognition, and behavioural intentions.

Using undergraduate students from a large North American university, three between‐subjects experiments were performed.

Study 1 findings demonstrate that affect and cognition elements equally influence trust in high‐consequence decisions. Also, trust is an important mediator between affect and cognition and the intention to continue the relationship and to seek a second opinion. Study 2 reinforces the importance of trust for the patient's evaluations, showing that when trust is low, the second opinion influences patient satisfaction. However, when patient trust is high, the second opinion (the same or different, compared with the first diagnosis) does not affect patient satisfaction. Study 3 shows that, in low‐consequence choices, cognition is a more relevant antecedent of trust than affect. Affect is important when cognition aspects (e.g. the competence of the doctor) are perceived as low.

As an original contribution, this study addresses the different impacts of affect and cognition aspects on patient trust, in high‐ and low‐consequence exchanges. Also, it highlights the importance of patient trust in the doctor when a second opinion is sought: a different diagnosis depletes patient satisfaction only for patients with low levels of trust in the doctor.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how effective knowledge management practices combined with a unique corporate culture have enabled the company Sarkuysan to cope with the challenges it has faced throughout the years and made it an extremely successful company.

A company case was chosen to explain the influences of cultural determinants on the success of knowledge management. This objective was achieved by conducting several interviews with the top managers of the company.

The findings of the article are, that effective knowledge management practices combined with a unique corporate culture can enable companies to instill a lasting knowledge management culture.

The article is based on a case study, which limits the possibility of making general conclusions. Whereas many studies discuss knowledge management primarily as an IT problem, this study focuses on the topic as a cultural issue.

Most current literature on knowledge management deals with multinational companies with Western management structures. This article describes how knowledge management is applied in an emerging market context, which does not necessarily share the culture, structures and ideals of the organizations on which current theories are based.

This article focuses on the concept of knowledge as a cultural issue, rather than a problem that can be solved by sophisticated information technology infrastructures. The paper deals with a firm from an emerging market/country, i.e. Turkey.

China is a fast‐growing economy, and many multinational companies (MNCs) have found their ways to infiltrate that market. The competition among the MNCs has generated human resource management (HRM) problems. When formulating approaches in dealing with these problems, the expatriate management of the MNCs often “speak for” their local employees, as if the latter has no voice of its own. It is suspected that MNCs know partly what their local employees value. With such limited understanding, the former may be ineffective in managing their local staff. The purpose of this paper is to report a study that explores the HRM problems from local employees' perspectives. To understand Chinese employees, the conceptual lens, stemmed from Chinese philosophical traditions instead of that derived from western experience, is used.

Data were collected through semi‐structured interviews with Chinese employees working in MNCs.

The findings suggest that “asymmetrical understanding” exists between expatriate managers and their Chinese employees, and that the former may know much less about the latter than it is normally assumed.

The findings, illustrated through interviews, have shed light on how MNCs could manage their Chinese employees, and how a meaningful dialogue could take place: understanding the other (Chinese employees) on their own intellectual ground to overcome “asymmetrical understanding”.

By allowing the voice of the other to come forth rather than to keep it in the background as, at best, a whisper, the study helps create a platform for a meaningful cross‐cultural dialogue between voices from the west and the other.

This paper aims to explore how and why salespeople enhance or hinder long-term business-to-business (B2B) customer relationships at the interpersonal level by considering self-disclosure and relational cost and reward evaluations.

Data from interviews (N = 47) with B2B sales professionals were analyzed, focusing on the shift of the phases in long-term B2B customer relationships.

Long-term B2B customer relationships evolve at the interpersonal level through a process of continuous relational cost and reward evaluation, self-disclosure and business disclosure in three phases: becoming business partners, collaborative partners and collaborative and personal partners. The reward evaluations progress from being business related to including even more relational benefits. Disclosure progresses through general business disclosure and general self-disclosure; strategic business disclosure and personal life self-disclosure; and synergistic business disclosure and private self-disclosure.

The long-term B2B customer relationships could be studied at the interpersonal level from the customer’s perspective. Self-disclosure could be studied in cross-cultural settings as well as gender differences should be considered in future studies. Business and social penetration theory could be applied to investigate different types of relationships and other professional relationships, such as those between employers and employees. It would be important to test whether the business-related and self-disclosure subtypes apply to the development of other types of professional relationships or whether other disclosure subtypes exist. The authors recommend exploring salespeople’s and customers’ privacy management strategies in multiple communication channels.

Managers may apply the results of this study in their customer relationship management and sales training.

The findings outline a contextual extension of social penetration theory.

This paper aims to investigate how and when different dimensions of trust and contracts interact to influence the development to negotiation strategies. Specifically, it explores how different dimensions of trust and contracts are combined to influence dispute negotiation strategies when cooperation parties have or do not have expectations of continuity.

This paper theoretically identified and empirically examined the interaction effect of trust and contract on dispute negotiation strategies in contractor–subcontractor relationships, by developing a conceptual framework and conducting a questionnaire survey comprising more than 300 disputes in the Chinese construction industry. Hierarchical regression analysis was mainly used to test the hypotheses.

This paper finds that contractual control may weaken the effect of goodwill trust in fostering interest-based strategies in the presence of expectations of continuity, while it may strengthen the effect in the absence of expectations of continuity. Contractual coordination negatively moderates the relationship between goodwill trust and interest-based strategies only when parties have little expectations of continuity. Moreover, contractual control enhances the effectiveness of competence trust on fostering interest-based strategies.

This paper provides insights for practitioners to wisely use different governance mechanisms to manage negotiation strategies and generate desired outcomes of dispute resolution.

This paper provides a nuanced understanding of how the two types of governance mechanisms interact, by considering trust and contract as multi-dimensional constructs. It explicit the boundary conditions of both the substitute and complementary relationship between them.

The perspective of marketing has changed from regarding marketing as a series of independent transactions to a dynamic process of establishing, maintaining and enhancing relationships. In an emerging theory of relationship marketing, both trust and satisfaction are core concepts in understanding the dynamics of how relationships evolve. Although the literature has thoroughly examined both trust and satisfaction, the interrelationship between them, including their consequences and antecedents, has not yet been addressed properly. We propose that the development of buyer‐seller relationships can be understood as a sequence of decisions buyers make regarding whether they should enter a relationship, continue a relationship, or enhance the scope of a relationship. These are different kinds of decisions where satisfaction and trust are likely to play different roles in risk reductions depending on the nature of the decision to be made. In a study of institutional buyers of a food producer we find that satisfaction and trust are complementary in the sense that trust is a key variable when decisions are related to enhancement in scope of the relationship, whereas satisfaction is a key variable when the issue is relationship continuity.