Study On Mutual Trust Mechanism Among Members Of Knowledge Chain Based On Social Capital

Knowledge chain can merge knowledge in or out of a corporation by sharing and creating the knowledge which flow among the members of a knowledge chain. The most important thing for a knowledge chain to succeed is the mutual trust among its members. A systematic and profound study on mutual trust mechanism among the members of a knowledge chain is instructional to ensuring the accomplishment of the knowledge. At present, the study on mutual trust mechanism is on the budding stage in our nation. Therefore, from the perspective that "social capital" has a close relation with trust, this paper made a useful attempt to develop knowledge chain management theory and trust theory by studying mutual trust mechanism systemically.From the point of view of "social capital", mutual trust among knowledge chain members can be divided into structural latitude and social latitude. These two latitudes complement each other and strengthen each other, they compose mutual trust together. According to the process of establishing and developing mutual trust, this paper partitioned mutual trust into 3 parts: tentative trust, maintaining trust and continued trust from time latitude. It was put forward that, on the assumption that knowledge chain goes through a whole lifecycle, mutual trust among members experiences a change from tentative trust to maintaining trust then to continued trust along with the cooperation developing. During the changing, level of trust also changes from low to high.This paper researches mutual trust mechanism among knowledge chain members from 3 angles of view. It Studies trust-generating mechanism and trust-protecting mechanism to find out how those parts which compose and influence mutual trust work. Similarly, this paper also focuses on the establishing and developing process to find out the working process of those parts. This paper put forward the factors affecting mutual trust among knowledge chain members and used Game theory to analyze generating mechanism of mutual trust under single game and repeated game on the basis of such factors. Then, it proposed that a "process and norm based" mechanism generates mutual trust among knowledge chain members. Thereafter, the establishing and developing process of mutual trust was studied. And this process was divided into four phases which were forecasting phase, competence-ascertaining phase, trust-protecting phase as well as transferring and stepping-up phase. Integrating the lifecycle theory of knowledge chain, this paper gave a processing chart of the establishing and developing process of mutual trust. As trust has risk, controlling and managing it properly are necessary. Thereby, this paper researches mutual trust protecting mechanism based analyses of generating system as well as establishing and developing process. As to man-made risk, firstly, it can be evaded by partner-choosing system. Then, establishing trust-protecting system under different conditions also can reduce risks. On single game condition, mutual trust protecting mechanism based on mortgage or dynamic contract can protect mutual trust. On repeated (infinite times) game, reputation mechanism which can be transferred by network is able to be used to protect mutual trust. At the end of this paper, it did an empirical study by analyzing Silicon Valley as a case. And some views of this paper were demonstrated in this part. Studying mutual trust among knowledge chain members through those 3 angles of view can help enterprises of our country to see clearly the generating mechanism and establishing and developing process. As a result, it facilitate the establishing and protecting of mutual trust, therefore, improve success rate of knowledge chain.