Research On Trust Relationship In Partnering From The View Of Relational Contract

Previous researches in partnering have highlighted the importance of developing trust among construction partners to facilitate project success. This paper seeks to study the trust relationship in partnering from the view of relational contract. Fisrt, antecedent variables of trust in partnering were set before and after signing the relational contract. On the basis of antecedent variables, a trust cycle model was structured, which describes the dynamic characteristics of trust. Furthermore, a mathematic model was built, which can be used to measure the level of trust relationship, according to the results of performance in relational contract. Then, the trust antecedent variables of construction enterprises were analyzed in order to obtain the practical social causes of present low trust level in construction market in China, from the perspective of "embeddedness" in New Social Economics. Finally, this paper designed the most important antecedent variables of trust in partnering, that is relational contract. By using game theory, the strategy selection for owners and contractors in incentive mechanism was analyzed, and the ideal range of rewards and punishments in the relational contract were obtained. In addition, a simulated case about the dispute due the performance of the owners and contractors in relational contract was calculated, according to the final offer arbitration game model.