The Cognitive Model of Interfirm Trust Dynamics: How Trust Is Evolved?

This study develops an integrated view that may address interfirm trust formation and maintenance, which builds a cognitive model using the theory of fuzzy cognitive maps (FCMs) to show how the interfirm trust is evolved. The complexity natures of trust require use of soft computing modeling techniques. The proposed approach takes dynamic nature of trust into account to analyze evolution of trust. A case study of swift trust in the virtual enterprises is presented finally. The established cognitive map illustrates the changes of different factors and their effects on the final trusts.