Mismatch between Trust and Interdependence: The Moderating Role of Power Imbalance

For the importance of trust in interdependent relationships, many researches explored the effects of dependence and trust and the relationship between them. However, the effect of optimal trust - the match between trust and interdependence - is few explored. This research focuses on the question that should trust perfectly match with interdependence and finds that optimal trust helps facilitate cooperation (perceived support) and improves relationship (distributive fairness). We decompose the mismatch between trust and interdependence into two kinds (over-trust and under-trust) and explore the different effects of them on perceived support, fairness and performance. Also the moderating effect of power imbalance is examined. Data from 300 dyads of retailer and supplier supports some of our hypotheses: Over-trust increases retailer perceived support and supplier perceived distributive fairness; Under-trust significantly decreases perceived support for both retailer and supplier. Power imbalance moderates the relationship between retailer’s over-trust and perceived support, and the relationship between supplier’s under-trust and distributive fairness.