Empirical Research Of The Influence Mechanism Of Contract Complexity On Contractor's Trust In Construction

To explain the remaining controversy in literatures associated with the effect of contract on trust,and to guide the employer how to apply control mechanism to cultivate and sustain contractor's trust simultaneously,a theory model which consists of contract complexity as an independent variable,safeguard perception and restriction perception as mediators,bilateral transaction-specific investments as a moderator and contractor's trust as an independent variable,is established from the perspective of the employer in construction project.The result of empirical analysis with 295 validated questionnaires shows that safeguard perception takes complete mediating effects between contract complexity and contractor's trust,and bilateral transaction-specific investments reinforce the positive effect of contract complexity on safeguard perception and further effect contractor's trust.Theoretically,we build two paths with safeguard perception and restriction perception as mediators to explain the controversy of the effect of contract on trust and furthermore we revealed black box of the impact of contract complexity on trust gradually to push the contract governance and trust governance empirical research in the field of project governance from a chaotic state to clarity gradually.Furthermore we get some implication to the employers.First,the employer shall understand the complex contract can bring far more safeguard perception than restriction perception to the contractor in construction.As a strong party in drawing up the contract,the employer shall sign a clearer-content and more comprehensive contract to enhance the contractor's trust,especially considering the project at a high level of asset specificity.Second,after signing some kind of complex contract,the employer can consider enhance the level of his transaction-specific investments to reinforce the positive effect of complex contract on trust intentionally and let the contractor feel the employer's a great attention to the project and the respect for themselves and thus help to enhance contractor's trust in employer.