An Examination of Familiarity, Risk and Trust in Inter- Organizational Data Exchange Relationships

This study examines the impact of trading partner familiarity on two types of trusting-beliefs (goodwill-trust and competence-trust) and two types of perceived risk (relational-risk and performance-risk) in interorganizational data exchange relationships. A questionnaire and experimental simulation are utilized to provide empirical evidence supporting the study's propositions. Results show that familiarity has a positive influence on both competence-trust and goodwill-trust and a negative influence on both performance-risk and relational-risk. This study contributes to a further understanding of the processes by which familiarity may influence interorganizational relationships and presents findings that have implications for future research in this area.