Antecedents of Stakeholder Trust in Business Development in Latin America

Abstract

Trust is the expectation of honest and co-operative future behavior based on commonly shared norms (Fukuyama, 1995). In Latin American region, people who believe that most people can be trusted ranges from 4 to 19% as compared with 34% for USA and 60% for China and Sweden (World Values Survey, 2010-2014; Jamison, 2011; Cardenas et al., 2009). Trust consists of a mix of inter-personal trust and institutional trust. An understanding of business culture, national culture and religion is essential for developing trust in business relationships (Hurtado, 2010; Searing, 2013; Weck, 2013, Ransi and Kobti, 2014). Trust among various business stakeholders within a firm or between firms in a local, national or international setting is an essential component of business development activities that are rooted in the relationships between exchange partners (Barron, 2014; Taylor, 2013; Friman et al., 2002;). The monitoring mechanisms on trust, i.e., “trust but verify” are conductive to maintaining trust in a business relationship (Kusari, et al. 2014).