Research On Trust Relationship Among Enterprises And Contract Flexibility In Supply Chain

Market competition changes constantly and the consumer demand changes unpredictably, which make the uncertainty of market environment greatly enhanced. As the lubricants and adhesives to eliminate misunderstanding and contribute to cooperation, trust between enterprises is of great significance for enhancing supply chain flexibility in order to respond to uncertain environment. In the real world, the supply chain disorders and even collapses caused by trust crisis are too numerous to enumerate. Compared with the developed countries, these problems have not been paid enough attention by domestic scholars, as the study on these problems especially on the trust theory and empirical study in China is quite scarce. Based on the trust theory and research methods of the supply chain in China and abroad, a series of explosive theoretical hypothesizes are put forward, methods of PLS-SEM, Constraining Factor Model, Multi-Mediation Model, Evolutionary Game Model are applied to study the connotation, origin, the interaction effect of different dimensions of trust among supply chain members, the direct effect and multi-mediation effect on contract flexibility, the evolution of trust investment strategies are further studied in this paper. The main contents of the research are as follows:In the third chapter, the trust among supply chain members are divided into three dimensions, the origin of trust among supply chain members is studied, the effect of different dimensions of trust on contract flexibility is explored, and then the moderating effect of special investment is analyzed. The research results suggest that the institutional environment has a significant positive effect on the contract trust, communication has a significant positive effect on the goodwill trust and reputation has significant positive effects on contract trust, ability trust and goodwill trust; contract trust has significant positive effect on contract flexibility, goodwill trust has significant positive effect on contract flexibility, and the ability trust will have a significant positive impact on contract flexibility only if the specific investment is high.Based on the third chapter, the relationship among different dimensions of trust when influencing contract flexibility is discussed in the fourth chapter. Aiming at the defects of the Multiplicative Model, the Constraining Factor Model is introduced to study the problems above, which makes up the deficiency of the Multiplicative Model to a certain extent. Research results show that the enterprises have to strengthen the weakest dimension of trust in order to effectively improve the contract flexibility, namely "timely assistance" is more important than "icing on the cake". Overall, the three dimensions of trust between enterprises are all very important for adjustment to the contract flexibility, and the different dimensions of trust can not be replaced by each other, thus revealing the "cask effect" among different dimensions of trust.Stages of development of trust model is further given in the fifth chapter, based on which the relationship between trust and contract flexibility is studied and the multiple mediating effect in the process is explored. Research results show that contract trust and goodwill trust fully mediate the effect of ability trust on contract flexibility; the contract trust and goodwill trust have direct effect on contract flexibility, while the ability trust has indirect effect and the trust dimensions are interrelated.In the sixth chapter, based on the research results above, according to the mechanism of contract flexibility of trust between enterprises in the supply chain, the Evolutionary Game Theory is applied to study the evolution process of supply chain members’ trust strategies using the symbolic model. By setting the different initial conditions, state variables, numerical simulation technology is applied to describe how this mechanism works. Research result shows that the choice of trust investment strategy is closely related to trust input-output ratio, unilateral trust investment is not evolutionary stable. Free ride benefits, trust investment risk will affect the initiative of trust investment. In order to promote high trust investment, a certain amount of compensation can be negotiated in the contract in order to improve the performance of the supply chain,and only if the compensation exceeds the minimum value of the potential loss of unilateral trust investment, this compensation can be effective. Another interesting finding is that the basic income when both supply chain members choose low trust investment will not affect the trust investment decisions later.This paper is of guiding significance for further understanding of the connotation, origin, relationship, the effect of different dimensions of trust on contract flexibility and the evolutionary trust investment decision problems among the supply chain enterprises.