Trust and distrust in interorganisational relations—Scale development

Trust and distrust are considered as crucial elements in the management of hybrid interorganisational relationships with a view to helping to deal with their uncertainty and unpredictability. In this regard this paper seeks to conceptualize and clarify the interorganisational element of organizational trust and distrust and develop scales on which to measure it. The dimensions of the constructs have been tested on a sample of 400 respondents owners or top management on a representative sample by employment size. The research also attempts to identify the relationship between trust and distrust in inter-organisational relations. As a result of the research approach adopted, a one-dimensional scale for examining inter-organisational trust has been developed, as well as a two-dimensional scale for examining distrust in inter-organisational relations. The measurement scales developed and their validation conducted in this study represent a step forward towards the effective and reliable measurement of interorganisational trust and distrust. This is one of the few attempts at empirical verification of these constructs and the relationship between them, providing a comprehensive, operationally valid measure of interorganisational trust and distrust.