THE INFLUENCE OF TRUST ON NETWORK PERFORMANCE IN TAIWAN, SPAIN, AND THE NETHERLANDS: A CROSS-COUNTRY COMPARISON

Governance networks are generally seen as a vehicle for dealing with complex societal issues, and in such networks trust is seen as an important condition that enhances information exchange and learning among actors, thereby improving network performance. In this article, we use survey material collected in three countries-Taiwan, Spain, and the Netherlands-to explore hypotheses about trust enhancing network performance. Empirical analysis shows positive relationships between the level of trust and network performance. We also find that the number of network management strategies has a positive association with both network performance and trust. Our supplemental analysis also shows a positive relationship between the level of trust and output legitimacy.