INTRODUCTION
Practical issues
Cooperation played crucial roles in business practices since it can promote relational exchanges, effective competitions, enhances a flow of information and business transaction (Morgan & Hunt, 1994) Despite its important roles and benefits, business practicers find it challenging to achieve effective cooperation in Vietnam
The characteristics of the environment here was described with some frequencies of one time deal approach, inadequacy of company profile data the shortage of proper procedures, or the absence of developed infrastructures (Nguyen & Rose, 2009) It is quite common to experience the late time of product delivery, the unqualified product quality or the lack of delivering professional customer services from the suppliers here All of these caused difficulties for focal firms to foster relationships with the suppliers to achieve shared goals and have motivations to maintain the exchanged relationships Thus, this research is motivated to find out the key for effective cooperation to be applied in Vietnamese business practices
Studying inter-organizational cooperation in the literature review, the researcher was persuaded with the commitment-trust theory by Morgan and Hunt (1994)
Accordingly, trust and relationship commitment were explained to be the keys to make cooperation effective Morgan and Hunt (1994) also proposed important factors that impacted trust and relationship commitment such as the termination cost, benefits, shared values, communication or opportunistic behaviors, which helped the researcher gain insight ideas of how to achieve these keys for effective cooperation.
Theoretical gap and research objective
In the theory, the direct relationship of trust on cooperation in an emerging economy is questionable The inter-organizational trust was researched for over decades (Seppọnen, Blomqvist, & Sundqvist, 2007) but was mainly studied in the developed economies (e.g., Morgan & Hunt, 1994; Zineldin & Jonsson, 2000;
Abosag, Tynan, & Lewis, 2006) Thus, there was currently insufficient study of the relationship between trust and cooperation in the emerging market economies, where the researcher believed in the less impacts of trust on cooperation as it influenced in the developed economies
It is important to understand such relationship in an emerging economy such as Vietnam from scientific and practical aspects Therefore, the objective of this research is to test the relationship between trust and cooperation with a mediating variable of relationship commitment in focus on the relationships between focal firms with their suppliers Six hypotheses on the relationship between trust and cooperation in the Vietnamese business context are set and tested It is expected an insignificant relationship between trust and cooperation in an emerging economy, which will become a theoretical contribution of the research.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Trust
The literature surveyed on interorganizational trust, highlighted the primary conceptualization of trust as confidence, belief, willingness or expectation on exchange partners to fulfil their obligations (Zaheer & Harris, 2005); however, later studies showed a lack of consistent agreements for the appropriate conceptualization and operationalization in the trust context (Abosag et al., 2006;
This research shared the perspective with one of the most cited theories on the context of interorganizational trust from Morgan and Hunt (1994), who argued the redundancy of willingness in trust definition and indicated importantly the confidence; therefore, trust was redefined persuasively as the confidence in the reliability and integrity from the partners that the focal firm exchange with (Morgan
& Hunt, 1994) Later studies were also persuaded with the conceptualization of confidence and be applied in interorganizational cooperation (Dyer & Chu, 2000) or industrial marketing relationships (Cooote, Forrest & Tam, 2003)
Being consistent with the above conceptualization, trust was also distinguished by feeling and rational thinking (McAllister, 1995; Johnson & Grayson, 2005)
Previous studies categorized trust into two dimensions of cognitive trust and affective trust (e.g., Lewis & Weigert, 1985; McAllister, 1995; Mo ̈llering, 2002;
Johnson & Grayson, 2005) The reviews on interorganizational trust from 1990 to
2003 also highly recommended include cognitive and affective dimensions to capture interorganizational trust (Seppọnen et al., 2007)
Accordingly, cognitive trust is the confidence, which is founded on the knowledge of the party’s performance and capabilities This critical thinking is necessary to reduce the uncertain behaviors due to some degree of risk on the party’s behavior in the future (Eriksson & Sharma, 2003); therefore, strengthening the relationships with their exchange partners Whilst, the affection trust is the confidence, which is based on the natural feeling from the experience of receiving caring or concerns in transaction processes with exchanged parties (e.g., Lewis & Weigert, 1985;
McAllister, 1995; Mo ̈llering, 2002; Johnson & Grayson, 2005) This emotional trust is motivated by the partners’ goodwill (Ring & Van de ven, 1994) and shared values (Morgan & Hunt, 1994); which showed the willingness and quality of interaction in promoting the relationships.
Relationship commitment
Similar to trust, relationship commitment has been seen in different disciplinary to have a central position in developing sustainable relationships (Abosag et al., 2006)
It was not forced but earned, which revealed the willingness or intention to maintain in a long-term process rather than short-term alternatives (Zineldin & Jonsson,
Based on the definition of relationship commitment in social exchange (Cook &
Emerson, 1978), organizations (Meyer & Allen, 1984), strategic marketing and relationship management (Zineldin & Jonsson, 2000), this research conceptualized the relationship commitment as the belief on the importance of collaborating and maintaining the exchange relationship as well as the intention to endure it sustainably It has become crucial since the belief naturally leads to the positive perceiving toward the exchanged partners while the willingness will result in collaborating behaviors and activities to enhance the productivity and effectiveness of the relationships
This definition corresponds closely with the development of Morrman, Deshpande and Zaltman (1993, p.316) as the “enduring desire to maintain a valued relationship” and the conceptualization of Morgan and Hunt (1994) as a belief the relationship is worthy to endure sustainably and be willing to maximize the efforts on maintaining.
Cooperation
Cooperation was defined as the situation which exchange partners worked together to achieve mutual goals (Anderson & Narus, 1990; Skinner, Gassenheimer, &
Kelley, 1992) Morgan and Hunt (1994) highlighted that the effective cooperation could promote an effective competition within network and enhance the success of the relationship marketing Previous research on interorganizational study also emphasized the importance to understand how to develop and maintain cooperation to acquire sustainable satisfying relationships (Childers & Ruekert, 1982) Later, cooperation has been viewed with the temporary conflicts within the process (Frazier, 1983; Morgan & Hunt, 1994).
Theoretical gap
The practical roles and benefits of inter-organizational trust continuously fascinated the study by various scholars and business practicers Trust was considered as a primary source of sustainable competitive advantage as well as the main factor to improve the organization’s business capacity (e.g., Barney & Hansen, 1994;
Seppọnen et al., 2007) Nevertheless, trust facilitated information exchanges, cooperative behaviors and reduced costs of transaction and relationship conflicts (Nguyen, Babar, & Verner, 2006)
(Morgan & Hunt, 1994) In the interorganizational level, the research primarily focused on the relationships between buyers and sellers, business and business, suppliers and manufacturers (Seppọnen et al., 2007)
Despite its important roles and benefits, the nature of trust makes it risky in trusting their partners due to the possibility of uncertain anticipation for the party to behave opportunistically (Zaheer, McEvily, & Perrone, 1998; Dominique, 2012) The degree of freedom to disappoint the relationship’s expectation are still possible (Gambetta, 2000; Abosag et al., 2006) and makes it challenging for the exchange partners to assess this occurrence (Hosmer, 1995)
Together with the natural risk of trust itself, the risk for investments are even higher in the emerging economies The emerging nations are still in the process of industrialization and modernization; therefore, the lack of advanced infrastructures or the consistency in accounting or financial information will cause it riskier to do business in the emerging markets rather than in other developed economy nations
That is to say, the higher risks in the in the emerging markets might limit the effect of trust on cooperation even though primary studies of trust and cooperation in developed economies showed the supported direct relationship of trust and cooperation in their nations (Morgan & Hunt, 1994; Zineldin & Jonsson, 2000;
Abosag et al., 2006) This belief was also strengthened since Glaser-Segura (1998) statistically discovered the unsupported interorganizational trust and interorganizational cooperation Mexico
Furthermore, the previous studies indicated the different level of cognitive trust and affective trust in fostering the relationship exchange and cooperation The structural model of Park, Lee, Jang, and Lee (2013) also found the unsupported direct relationship between affective trust and the intention to use from the focal firms
This shapes a research belief that different type of trust may have different impact on the cooperation; therefore, it is motivated to find out whether cognitive and affective trusts have direct impact on cooperation or not If so, which type of trust can have higher impact on the cooperation in the emerging market economy?
Hypothesis formulation
In this section, six hypothesizes have been formed to address the research questions
Hypothesis 1: Cognitive trust positively influences affective trust
There was occurrence of bidirectional causal effect between cognitive trust and affective trust since cognitive trust firstly occurred and became the base for developing affective trust but when affective trust developed to a certain level, reverse causal direction might occur (McAllister, 1995) However, that mature level involved with risk as it based on emotion rather than knowledge of partners’ business performance, therefore, it was more natural to see the initial development of cognitive trust for secure and its influence on affective trust For instance, having a belief in the suppliers’ actual performance could open the committed partners in sharing information actively and openly
This direction, therefore, was made on hypothesis one, which was also consistent with the proven dependence of affective trust on cognitive trust in an organizational level (McAllister, 1995) In the interorganizational relationship, the direct impact of cognitive trust on affective trust was also confirmed in relationship marketing (Morgan & Hunt, 1994); financial consulting environment (Johnson & Grayson,
2005), international trading (Zur, Leckie & Webster, 2012) or information technology service (Scott, 2000; Park et al., 2013)
Hypothesis 2: Cognitive trust positively influences relationship commitment Hypothesis 3: Affective trust positively influences relationship commitment
The two above hypothesizes are also proposed in the research Accordingly, Moorman, Deshpand and Zalman (1993) emphasized that exchanged partners valued and committed to the relationship, which characterized by trust Later, Morgan and Hunt (1994) proved trust as the major influence on the relationship commitment in the relational exchange The causal relationship from trust to relationship commitment was also determined by a variety of authors in interorganizational level (Zineldin & Jonsson, 2000; Abosag et al., 2006; Park et al., 2013; Jeong & Oh, 2017; Wang, Tajvidi, Lin & Hajli, 2019; Cui, Mou, Cohen, Liu
Hypothesis 4: Relationship commitment positively influences cooperation
The hypothesis four was formulated To make the relationship work properly and efficiently, a partner who is committed to the exchange relations will cooperate with others (Morgan & Hunt, 1994) Similarly, both theories and empirical research has proven this relationship and found the significant influence of relationship commitment on cooperation in various contexts (Zineldin & Jonsson, 2000; Abosag et al., 2006; Park et al., 2013)
Hypothesis 5: Cognitive trust positively influences cooperation Hypothesis 6: Affective trust positively influences cooperation
The above hypotheses were made In a market where the quantities of suppliers are limited, cooperation might be taken temporarily in the initial establishment of the relational exchange process In this situation, trust might form and develop in the middle of the process by a certain period of time with the flow of business transactions However, this direction did not often happen and involved with higher risk for the success of business transaction To secure the business, especially in a long term, the performance and the goodwill of the suppliers should be evaluated prior for cooperation to be established It was persuaded that the partner would undertake action of cooperating when trust existed (Pruitt, 1981; Anderson & Narus,
1990) The empirical research from Morgan and Hunt (1994) also indicated a direct impact of trust on cooperation since coordinating activities required trust in their partner The direction was also consistent with other studies in cross-national contexts (e.g., Abosag et al 2006; Martins, Faria, Prearo, & Arruda, 2016).
Research model
From the above hypothesizes, a conceptual model was proposed to investigate the relationship between trust and cooperation with mediating variable as relationship commitment (Figure 2.1)
METHODOLOGY AND DATA COLLECTION
Research scope
Vietnam was selected for its relevance with the phenomenon of the research The country was one of the most vibrant emerging market economies in East Asia region (Worldbank, 2019) Despite the challenges that committed suppliers might neither have sufficient competence performance nor enthusiastic attitude to cooperate for long-term relationship developments, this prospective nation has still attracted an increasing number of foreign direct investments with numerous opportunities
Since it is highly valuable to measure how trust was perceived for the measurement of these interorganizational levels (Mo ̈llering, 2002), this would investigate the perception from the focal firms or non-governmental organizations that purchased, partnered or consumed the products and services from their exchanged suppliers.
Research design
The quantitative research was implemented to examine the conceptual model with collected data through online questionnaire survey
The questionnaire included three sections Section one was an introductory letter that briefed the topic, its objectives, an estimated time, confidentiality and appreciation for participation While the second section was designed for demographic information, the last section composed twenty one questionnaire items
An additional open question was also made for further recommendation from respondents
To increase the effectiveness of carrying out survey, the questionnaire was discussed and reviewed by the supervisors Then, pilot questionnaire was sent to several readers who had capabilities for evaluation and correction This research also provided the simple definition of what suppliers were so that the readers could understand better Since the targeted respondents are Vietnamese, a translation into Vietnamese was made for assessment To increase the correctness of the translation, reversed-translation has been done and bilingual languages have been adapted, in which both original English version and Vietnamese translation were made for the readers’ comparison
The questionnaires were constructed to aim at those, who were responsible, represented or being involved in the organizational process of making organizational decisions to deal with their major suppliers To make the judgement, it was important for the respondents to have certain experiences in the field; therefore, this research targeted responders, who had at least three years of relevant experiences, hold the position as senior staff, supervisor, manager or business owner.
Research scales
Hypothesis testing depended highly on the solid construct measurement (Bacharach, 1989); therefore, this research critically considered the measure that was consistent and relevant with the conceptualization, met the standard of empirical research and importantly could capture the respondents’ objective perspective on evaluating their suppliers from the organizational level
Focal constructs: The scales include twenty one items that were adapted from previous well-known research of interorganizational trust to measure each variable
Six items for cognitive trust and four items for affective trust were adapted from
Mo ̈llering (2002), which reflected our conceptualization The trustworthy research from Mo ̈llering (2002) was also consistent with others (Sako, 1992; Morgan &
Hunt, 1994; McAllister, 1995) It was noted that this research also omitted one item from the affective trust, in which, Mo ̈llering (2002) also omitted it due to the proven in the vague meaning and irrelevance measurement of the item
Whilst, six items to measure relationship commitment and four items to measure cooperation were used from the study of Zineldin and Jonsson (2000), in which items reflected with this research’s conceptualization and other notable studies (Mowday et al., 1979; Morgan & Hunt, 1994)
Five-point Likert scales were carried out to construct cognitive trust and affective trust while seven-point Likert scales was implemented to measure relationship commitment and cooperation All constructs used multiple items, which were shown in Appendix 1.
Process of collecting data
Mailing and social media were used to collect the data within a month, from 13 th March 2020 to 12 th April 2020 The research followed the three steps At first, the introductory letter was sent to ask if the respondents were having experience in dealing with the supplier in the organizational level Then, the study quickly asked for their permission to fill the research As long as they agreed, the link of the research was sent for them to answer Thirdly, the research also made a list of those who agreed for participation to remind if the questionnaire was not filled within three days due to their heavy workload There were approximately twenty percentages of the cases that the respondents were required to remind by another
It was crucial to target a variety of companies to avoid the bias of working in the same organization, who might share similar characteristics While the study followed the three main steps above, three main networks were utilized to increase the population The first one was the research’s connection in business A list of suitable contacts with relevant experiences was made through the network Most of individuals in this list hold the managerial positions and were willing to participate when they were asked for permission Secondly, the research also expanded by asking those who have been currently holding the management levels in corporation to share the link to more suitable respondents within their networks Thirdly, the research also received supports from individuals, who agreed to share the link on the Business Networking Association in Ho Chi Minh City and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) groups at the Foreign Trade University (FTU) in Hanoi.
Characteristics of respondents
There were ninety five respondents that were collected on this questionnaires survey; however, five unqualified individuals were sorted out Among the five unqualified respondents, the reversed question identified two unqualified individuals who responded without consideration In addition, the question of asking direct working experiences with suppliers in the demographic section indicated other three respondents, who had less than three years of working experience, were considered as lacking of relevant experiences for evaluation Thus, this questionnaire survey used ninety samples for the data analysis in Vietnam All of the information was shown in the summary of frequency result (table 3.1)
Table 3.1 Demographic characteristic of respondents
Department Research and product development 2 2.2
Marketing, sales, customer service 28 31.1 Finance, Accounting, Purchasing 14 15.6
Working experience with suppliers Experience (3-5) 44 48.9
Source: Summary result of frequency analysis on SPSS version 26.0
The number of respondents by industry was 29 (32.2%) for manufacturing; 47 (52.2%) for service, 14 (15.6%) for both manufacturing and service
There were four Vietnamese respondents from non-governmental organization and one from German non-governmental organization, who also have experience in dealing with suppliers, participated in this survey The rest 85 respondents worked in business, which included 39 (43.3%) for Vietnamese enterprise, 15 (16.7%) for joint venture enterprise and 31 (34.4%) for wholly foreign own enterprise
The number of respondents who worked in small business, which has the number of employees less than 100 employees were 41 (45.6%); medium business which has number of employee in the range of 100 to 1000 were 24 (26.7%); big corporation which more than 1,000 employees were 25 (27.8%)
There were 34 (37.8%) respondents who worked in general executive management department; 28 (31.1%) for respondents worked in the marketing, sales and customer service department, 14 (15.6%) worked for finance, accounting and purchasing; 5 (5.6%) for production; 4 (4.4%) for logistics; 3 (3.3%) for human resource and 2 (2.2%) for research and product development
The position of respondent was 26 (28.9%) for business owner or CEO; 12 (13.3%) for manager; 20 (22.2%) for supervisor and 32 (35.6%) for senior staff The respondents’ years of working experience with suppliers was 44 (48.9%) for three to five years; 28 (31.1%) for six to ten years and 18 (20%) for more than 11 years
The gender of respondent was 57 (63.3%) for female; 33 (36.7%) for male The age group was 1 (1.1%) for less than 25 years old, 53 (58.9%) for the range from 25 to
35 years old, 32 (35.6%) for 35 to 50 years old and 4 (4.4%) for more than age of
This data also received a comment from a respondent, who is the business owner of Volswagen official flagship store (Mar, 2020) that “Selecting right suppliers in Vietnam market is not easy, there are a lot of problems with pricing, relationship problems, legal, commission and so on It's very important to choose legitimate suppliers for security” This comment has become valuable to the research since it strengthened the belief in the challenges in doing business the case of Vietnam.
Descriptive statistics analysis
This part summarized the description of data sample The mean and standard deviations of each construct item, which were determined to access the characteristic description, were shown on the table 3.2
Table 3.2 Mean and standard deviation
In general, mean value of the each question represented the numbers for agreements or disagreement on each scale item On average, the mean of trust, which included affective trust and cognitive trust scored more than 3 on the scale from one to five (strongly disagree to strongly agree); indicated that the degree of agreements from majority of respondents with the content of question items The standard deviation on each item of cognitive trust was considered as being moderate (the majority is approximately 1) while the standard deviation on each item of affective trust was considered as low (the majority of standard deviation was less than 1)
The mean of relationship commitment and cooperation with the majority scored more than 5 on the scale from one to seven (strongly disagree to strongly agree) also showed a good level of agreement on the content of the question There was only one question ‘RC7’, which had the mean score of 2.01, showed the disagreement of the research question This was reasonable since it was a reversed question, which was designed on the purpose of testing the answer consistence with other questions from the respondents The table also recorded a low standard deviation (less than 1) on the majority of each items of relationship commitment and cooperation
This research carefully processed the selection of respondents and invited participants from a variety of companies to insure data reliability and validity
Interorganizational trust has been a complex context and its assessment depended on the individual informants, who might respond subjectively the generalization about organizational level issues (Seppọnen et al., 2007) A single-informant bias might lead to the severe obstacles; therefore, this study made high efforts in obtaining reliable information from careful process of selecting right respondents
The multi-items were selected from reputable theory and authors to measure each variance The reversed question was made to check the consistency of the respondents In addition, the research also required the respondents to register email in order to access questionnaire items and the name of their company where they represented to improve their responsibility in answering This study also had the question of asking direct working experience with suppliers to limit the case where they might have lots of experience in their areas but not in this field
The content and construct validity test were taken to increase the reliability and validity The sufficient number of reliable literature was selected, reviewed and used thoroughly All of question items were under revision of supervisors
Nevertheless, five experienced friends were invited to do a pilot survey before implementation
Furthermore, Cronbach’s coefficient alpha was employed to measure the internal consistency or inter-correlation for the scale within same construct All of the information in this section was shown on table 3.3
Cronbach's Alpha if Item Deleted
Source: Summary result of descriptive analysis on SPSS version 26.0
According to Churchill (1979), the consistency with an alpha values of 0.70 or higher was considered as being adequate Accordingly, the analysis showed qualification of cognitive trust (CT), affective trust (AT), and relationship commitment (RC) The researched recorded the high reliability of CT, AT and RC which the alpha value of more than 0.87 Specifically, the table 3.3 showed the Cronback’s coefficient alpha of 0.898 for CT; 0.874 for AT and 0.758 for RC
It was noted on the Cronback’s coefficient alpha that RC7 has the lowest value for
“Mean” (2.01) and a value near the middle for “Std Deviation” (0.989) As a requirement in analysis, the corrected item of total correlation must be more than 0.3 if the item deleted was over 0.758; therefore, when the component RC7 was extracted, Cronbach’s Alpha value increased to 0.873 In fact, RC7 was a reversed question and therefore was eliminated for further analysis
There was a particular case of cooperation (COO), which indicated the Cronback’s coefficient alpha value of 0.655 The acceptable values would depend on the nature of a study and academic discipline In social science, sociology or exploratory studies, the modest reliabilities of 0.60 are also acceptable (Nunnally, 1967; Aron &
Aron, 1999; Hair, Black, Babin, Anderson, & Tatham, 2006; Zikmund, Babin, Carr,
& Griffin, 2013); therefore, it was reasonable to accept the scale of COO with the Cronback’s coefficient alpha value of 0.655
Overall, this research captured the elimination of one observed variable, which was the reversed question RC7 Since the rest of observed variable items are accepted, all of them (without RC7) will be used in subsequent factor analysis.
Reliability and validity
To implement exploratory factor analysis (EFA), this research run dimension reduction factors with principle components method, the rotation as Varimax and suppress small coefficients with absolute value below 0.3 for analysis KMO and Bartlett’s test of sphericity was also displayed on the description Cognitive trust and affective trust was inserted for an evaluation There was an occurrence value of CT1 on both CT for 0.322 and AT for 0.491; therefore, CT1 was extracted for the measurement of CT for second EFA The detail information was all shown on the following table 4.1:
Table 4.1 EFA of CT and AT
EFA Loading of CT & AT EFA Loading CT & AT
(after extraction of CT1) KMO and Bartlett's Test 0.862 KMO and Bartlett's Test 0.85
Rotated Component Matrix α Rotated Component Matrix α
DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
Exploratory factor analysis of CT and AT
To implement exploratory factor analysis (EFA), this research run dimension reduction factors with principle components method, the rotation as Varimax and suppress small coefficients with absolute value below 0.3 for analysis KMO and Bartlett’s test of sphericity was also displayed on the description Cognitive trust and affective trust was inserted for an evaluation There was an occurrence value of CT1 on both CT for 0.322 and AT for 0.491; therefore, CT1 was extracted for the measurement of CT for second EFA The detail information was all shown on the following table 4.1:
Table 4.1 EFA of CT and AT
EFA Loading of CT & AT EFA Loading CT & AT
(after extraction of CT1) KMO and Bartlett's Test 0.862 KMO and Bartlett's Test 0.85
Rotated Component Matrix α Rotated Component Matrix α
Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis
Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization.a a Rotation converged in 3 iterations
Source: Summary result of EFA on SPSS version 26.0
Correlation coefficients analysis
This research transformed or computed the variable into a representative factor as following information on the table 4.2:
CT or CT [CT23456] is the representative variable for cognitive trust, which was conceptualized as the confidence, which based on the knowledge of the party’s performance and capabilities It was the mean of CT2, CT3, CT4, CT5, CT6 since the CT1 was not qualified in the previous EFA
CT = Mean (CT2, CT3, CT4, CT5, CT6)
AT or AT [AT1234] is the representative variable for affective trust, which was defined as the confidence, which based on the natural feeling from the experience of receiving caring or concern in transaction process It was the mean of AT1, AT2, AT3 and AT4
AT = Mean (AT1, AT2, AT3, AT4)
RC or RC [RC123456] is the representative variable for relationship commitment, which was the belief of a worthy relationship and the intention to endure it sustainably RC was the mean of RC1, RC2, RC3, RC4, RC5 and RC6
RC = Mean (RC1, RC2, RC3, RC4, RC5, RC6)
COO or COO [COO1234] is the representative variable for cooperation, which was conceptualized as the situation in which the exchange partners work together to achieve mutual goals COO was the mean of COO1, COO2, COO3, COO4
COO = Mean (COO1, COO2, COO3, COO4)
Source: Created by the author
The correlation coefficients analysis (Coakes, Steed, & Ong, 2010) was then implemented and shown on the table below:
Table 4.3 Correlation coefficients Matrix Analysis
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (1-tailed)
* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (1-tailed)
Source: Correlation analysis on SPSS 26.0
The table 4 3 indicated the correlation of all variables for analysis It showed the significant correlation of CT with AT (significance p value of 0.381), significant correlation of CT with RC (significance p value of 0.465), significant correlation of
AT with RC (significance p value of 0.558), significant correlation of RC with COO (significance p value of 0.528) and significant correlation of AT with COO (significance p value of 0.226)
In summary, it could be intepreted that all the correlation between variables
COO, which was later double-checked with the regression analysis for further data interpretation.
Regression analysis
Following the guide of data analysis on SPSS statistics from Pallant (2010), a regression analysis was conducted to discover the relationship among these variables
4.3.1 Regression with AT as dependent variable
Table 4.4 Regression with AT as dependent variable
To evaluate the regression model in supporting the research hypotheses, it was firstly to examine the adjusted R squared (R2) to see the percentage of total variance of the dependent variables (Pallant, 2010) Although the requirement of a high R-square of above 50% or 60% in natural science studies (Hair et al., 2006); the studies in psychology, humanities or social science suggested the appropriate adjusted R-square as being moderate in the range of 13 and 33% (Cohen, 1992;
The adjusted R-square value on the table 4.4 above presented the value of 0.135 (over than 0.13); therefore, this value was understood as a medium effect sizes
Respectively, the table also showed the qualification of an ANOVA regression significance value of 0.00 (lower than 0.05) The coefficient result with value of 0.00 for CT (lower than 0.05); indicated the significant relationship between CT and
AT with the impact value of 0.381
The regression equation, which based on the standardized coefficients, was formed as following: AT = 0.381*CT The variance inflation factor (VIF) values for component indicated the value of 1 are within limit (less than 2); thus, it was concluded that the multi-collinearity problems were not severe to be overly concerned (Pallant, 2010)
4.3.2 Regression with RC as dependent variable
Table 4.5 Regression with RC as dependent variable (CT is predictor)
Std Error of the Estimate
B Std Error Beta Tolerance VIF
CT 0.384 0.078 0.465 4.929 0 1 1 a Predictors: (Constant), CT b Dependent Variable: RC Source: Regression analysis on SPSS 26.0
Table 4.6 Regression with RC as dependent variable (AT is predictor)
Std Error of the Estimate
Squares df Mean Square F Sig
B Std Error Beta Tolerance VIF
CT 0.63 0.1 0.558 6.307 0 1 1 a Predictors: (Constant), AT b Dependent Variable: RC Source: Regression analysis on SPSS 26.0
The table 4.5 and 4.6 all showed adjusted R-square value over than 0.13; which presented a medium or moderate effect size The table also presented the ANOVA regression significant value of 0.000 (lower than 0.05)
The coefficient result of the two above tables were all lower than 0.05 (0.000 for both AT and CT); which determined the significant impact of CT and AT on RC
The regression equation model, which based on standardized coefficients, was: RC
= 0.465*CT and RC = 0.558*AT The beta standardized coefficients of AT (0.558) was higher than CT (0.465); thus, it could be interpreted the stronger impact of that the AT on RC than the impact of CT on RC
The VIF value in the tables also presented the value of 1 (lower than 2) indicated no occurrence of multi-collinearity (Pallant, 2010)
4.3.3 Regression with COO as dependent variable
Table 4.7 Regression with COO as dependent variable (RC is predictor)
R Square Std Error of the Estimate Durbin-
Squares df Mean Square F Sig
Coefficientsa Model Unstandardized Standardized t Sig Collinearity
CT 0.495 0.085 0.528 5.834 0 1 1 a Predictors: (Constant), RC b Dependent Variable: COO Source: Regression analysis on SPSS 26.0
The table 4.7 showed the Adjusted R-square value of 0.279 (more than 0.13) and the ANOVA regression significant value of 0.000 (lower than 0.05); which was referred as respectively moderate effect size for analysis (Cohen, 1992; Chin, 1998)
It can be interpreted that RC has significant impact on COO Thus, the regression equation was made on the basis of standardized coefficients as: COO = 0.528*RC with no occurrence of multi-collinearity due to the VIF value of 1 (lower than 2)
Table 4.8 Regression with COO as dependent variable (CT is predictor)
Table 4.9 Regression with COO as dependent variable (AT is predictor)
The coefficient result on the table 4.8 and 4.9 showed insignificant relationship between AT, CT with COO since both Adjusted R square and ANOVA regression value was not qualified for further assessment
In accordance to all of the regression analysis, the conceptual model in Vietnam was made as shown below in the Figure 4.1:
Figure 4.1 Conceptual model in Vietnam
Discussion
The table 4.10 below showed the summary of the hypothesis testing
Table 4.10 Summary of the hypothesis testing
H1 Cognitive trust positively influences affective trust Supported H2 Cognitive trust positively influences relationship commitment Supported H3 Affective trust positively influences relationship commitment Supported H4 Relationship commitment positively influences cooperation Supported H5 Cognitive trust positively influences cooperation Not supported H6 Affective trust positively influences cooperation Not supported
The finding presented the significant association of cognitive trust with affective trust This supported the finding of previous existing literature (McAllister, 1995;
Johnson & Grayson, 2005; Park et al., 2013) In this situation, it could be interpreted that the focal firms believe that if the suppliers were confident in their business capacities to providing committed products and services, the suppliers would be more confident in making effort to express their willingness, caring to further facilitate the success of the business transactions
The result also gave the significant effect of both cognitive trust and affective trust on relationship commitment The positive influence of both cognitive trust and affective trust on relationship commitment was consistent with the previous literature (Moorman et al., 1993; Morgan & Hunt, 1994; Zineldin & Jonsson, 2000;
Abosag et al., 2006; Park et al., 2013) When the focal firms believed that the relationship with the suppliers were important and be convinced by the suppliers’ performance and showing caring in the business transaction, they would strongly believe that the relationship was worthy to maintain and be willing to endure it
Nowadays, it seemed like the focal firms acknowledged the importance of a long- term cooperation in transactional process so that they considered both business performance and the caring attitudes from the suppliers to commit in the exchanged relationships
Nevertheless, the effect of cognitive trust (0.465) on relationship commitment was lower than the impact of affective trust (0.558) on relationship commitment because the standardized coefficient of cognitive trust was lower than the standardized coefficient of affective trust It was reasonable when affective trust was strengthened by cognitive trust; however, affective trust was considered as independent variable in the correlation and regression analysis with relationship commitment variable Hence, the results truly highlighted the importance role of revealed how important role for the suppliers to show the caring and concerns to the firms in order to foster their commitments in maintaining the relationship Even though the finding was similar to a literature (Park et al., 2013), it was interesting to see the important of expressing the willingness and caring in business transactions from the suppliers Perhaps, the focal firms in the emerging economies feel more secured when the exchanged partners showed their willingness and attitude for consideration
Similar to previous studies (Morgan & Hunt, 1994; Zineldin & Jonsson, 2000;
Abosag et al., 2006; Park et al., 2013), the relationship commitment was found to influence positively on cooperation It was convincing since the firms, who were committed into the relationship with suppliers would cooperate with the suppliers to make the relationship work effectively for mutual benefits
On the other hand, the findings did not support the direct relationship between trust (both cognitive and affective trust) with cooperation It was different from the findings of direct relationship between trust and cooperation in the developed economies (e.g., Morgan & Hunt, 1994; Zineldin & Jonsson, 2000; Abosag, Tynan,
The less strong theoretical backing and limitation in sample size made it challenging for the researcher to make a concise evaluation for the relationship
However, this finding was still stimulating for further exploration since it was observably captured in the business practices in Vietnam In fact, Vietnam was not a typical case in this respect since the study of Glaser-Segura (1998) in Mexico also found the unsupported interorganizational trust and interorganizational cooperation
Hence, this result still implied the less impact of trust on cooperation in the emerging economy, where the risks are higher due to its lack of advanced infrastructures or the consistency in accounting or financial information In other words, the firm would cooperate only when they made commitment in the relationship, which was promoted by trust development from the suppliers in Vietnam.
CONCLUSION
Theoretical contributions
This empirical research generalized the commitment-trust theory in the focus of relationship between trust, relationship commitment and cooperation It strengthened the understanding concepts and roles of interorganizational trust with two dimensions of cognitive trust and affective trust in the association with other variables
Furthermore, the analysis utilized the most updated data in an emerging economy, where still lacked of research in the field, to observe the role of each type of trust in the interorganizational level in both manufacturing and service environment
Importantly, the result indicated insignificant direct impact of both affective and cognitive trust on cooperation, which was different from the result that was found in developed economies.
Managerial implications
To capture more opportunities and mutual benefits, the suppliers are recommended to communicate actively and deliver shared values in building trust with their clients The clients required both cognitive and affective trust; therefore, the suppliers should both improve their business performance in term of the product quality, the time delivery or the accuracy of information sharing to build cognitive trust from the focal firms At the same time, they should make efforts in understanding the client’s needs and make constant efforts in treating customers in a sincere goodwill and showing considerations to establish affective trust
From the side of the clients, the firms are suggested to build a strong relationship commitment with the suppliers It is better for the firms to make efforts as well as be fully open and honest in the maintaining the relationship with suppliers In addition, providing the further supports and the accuracy of information to suppliers in improving the suppliers’ performance is also crucial so that the suppliers can be more confident in assisting more effectively
There is no doubt that trust and relationship commitment are proven to be the key for managers and entrepreneurs to achieve a sustainable cooperation with their exchanged partners It is always healthier to cooperate rather than against each other; therefore, being able to achieve the above activities will gradually develop trust among each other and naturally facilitate the business transactions so that both can be satisfied with the relationship and be able to possess the mutual benefits.
Limitations and recommendations
The sample size was the limitation of this research Despite the nature of this study and its targeted samples made it challenging to collect a large scale of sample size, it is suggested to consider other methods to increase its sample size For instance, mentioning some practical contribution of this research may help to increase the willingness to participate from business practicers who deny to participate without seeing the benefits The print survey is also suggested to increase the validity and reliability of collected data
It is more valuable to collect data from the focal firms’ perspectives; however, it will be more objective if the researcher can also access the data from the supplier’s perspective Therefore, it is recommended for further research to consider both perspectives for data collection
It was also captured that in the scale measurement of COO1, the question was so vague that made it hard for the respondents to answer Whilst, the result of mean value and standard deviation from question item COO2 recorded a bias result in answering the questions Even though the measurement of cooperation was consistent and based on reputable theory, the items of COO need to be revised for better assessment in research in the near future
In this research, the practical contribution was clear but not persuasive enough since the relationship between other variables from the based theory that affected on trust and relationship commitment were assumed rightly without testing Therefore, it was recommended for other researchers to consider testing the impact of these variables on trust and relationship commitment together to strengthen the practical
The research also faced limitation in making concise conclusion of relationship and in exploring the complex of interorganizational trust and the hidden reasons behind the relationship among them Therefore, it was encouraged to combine both quantitative and qualitative research for more remarkable exploration In addition, a study in the comparison of two nations, which represent different market economy with the risk as a moderating variable, would make this research highly valued and much more interesting in explaining the situations
Last but not least, the difficulties to make general evaluation toward all major suppliers of the corporation was mentioned by the supervisors of Heineken corporation and Vinamilk corporation, who made evaluation only on what they experienced from their departments Even though there were only two cases (2.2%) of the sample, it raised a possibility in which each department in a large corporation might perceived differently; therefore, it is suggested for further studies to explore the difference in each department in corporation There might be some remarkable findings from this accordingly
Abosag, I., Tynan, C., & Lewis, C (2006) The Commitment-Trust Theory: The British and Saudi Arabian Cross-National Perspectives
Aron, A., & Aron, E (1999) Statistics for psychology (2 ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall
Barney, J B., & Hansen, M H (1994) Trustworthiness as a source of competitive advantage Strategic Management Journal, 15, 175–191
Childers, T.L., & Ruekert, R.W (1982) The meaning and determinants of cooperation within an interorganizational marketing network In Hunt, S.D and Bush, R.F (eds), Proceedings of the 1982 Winter Educators' Conference, Marketing
Theory: Philosophy of Science Perspectives, American Marketing Association, Chicago, IL
Chin, W.W (1998) The partial least squares approach for structural equation modeling In G A Marcoulides (Ed.), Methodology for business and management
Modern methods for business research (p 295–336) Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers
Chow, S., & Holden, R (1997) Toward an understanding of loyalty: The moderating role of trust Journal of Managerial Issues, 9(3), 275 – 298
Churchill, G (1979) A Paradigm for developing better measures of marketing constructs Journal of Marketing Research, 16, 64-73
Coakes, S.J., Steed, L., & Ong, C (2010) SPSS Version 17.0 for Windows:
Analysis without anguish Milton: John Wiley & Sons Australia
Cohen, J (1992) Statistical power analysis Current Directions in Psychological Science, 1(3), 98–101 https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8721.ep10768783
Cui, Y., Mou, J., Cohen, J.F., Liu, Y., & Kurcz, K (2020) Understanding consumer intentions toward cross-border m-commerce usage: A psychological distance and commitment-trust perspective Electronic Commerce Research Res Appl., 39,
Dominique, O (2012) 15 facts about trust definition types perspectives week 2 of twelve weeks to trust Retrieved January 12, 2020, from https://accoladecommunications.ca/2012/04/22/15-facts-about-trust-definition- types-perspectives-week-2-of-twelve-weeks-to-trust/
Dyer, J H., & Chu, W (2000) The determinants of trust in supplier– automaker relationships in the US, Japan, and Korea Journal of International Business Studies, 31(2), 259–285
Eriksson, K., & Sharma, D (2003) Modeling uncertainty in buyer-supplier cooperation Journal of Business Research, Vol 56, No 12, pp 961-971
Frazier, G L (1983) Interorganizational exchange behavior in Marketing Channels: A Broadened Perspective Journal of Marketing, 47 (Fall), 68-78
Gambetta, D (2000) Can We Trust Trust In Gambetta, Diego (ed.) Trust: Making and Breaking Cooperative Relations, electronic edition, Department of Sociology,
University of Oxford, chapter 13, pp 213-237,
Glaser-Segura, D.A (1998) The Influence of Interorganizational Trust, Individualism and Collectivism, and Superordinate Goal of JIT/TQM on Interorganizational Cooperation: An Exploratory Analysis of Institutions in Mexico
Hair, J F., Black, W C., Babin, B J., Anderson, R E., & Tatham, R L (2006)
Multivariate data analysis Prentice Hall Pearson Education
Hosmer, L T (1995) Trust: The connecting link between organizational theory and philosophical ethics The Academy of Management Review, 20(2), 379–
Jeong, M & Oh, H (2017) Business-to-business social exchange relationship beyond trust and commitment International Journal of Hospitality Management
Johnson., D & Grayson., K (2005) Cognitive and affective trust in service relationships Journal of Business Research, vol 58, no 4, pp.500-507, 2005
Lewis, J D., & Weigert, A (1985) Trust as a social reality Social Forces, 63(4), 967–985 https://doi.org/10.2307/2578601
Martins, D., Faria, A., Prearo, L., & Arruda, A (2016) The level of influence of trust, commitment, cooperation, and power in the interorganizational relationships of Brazilian credit cooperatives Revista de Administraỗóo 52
McAllister, D J (1995) Affect- and Cognition-Based Trust as Foundations for Interpersonal Cooperation in Organizations Academy of Management Journal, vol
Mo ̈llering, G (2002) Perceived trustworthiness and inter-firm governance:
Empirical evidence from the UK printing industry Cambridge Journal of
Moorman, C., Deshpande, Â R., & Zaltman, G (1993) Factors affecting trust in market research relationships Journal of Marketing, Vol 57, January, pp 81-101
Morgan, R M., & Hunt, S D (1994) The Commitment-Trust Theory of
Relationship Marketing Journal of Marketing, 58(3), 20 doi:10.2307/1252308
Mowday, R.T., Steers, R.M & Portrer, L.W (1979) The measurement of organizational commitment Journal of Vocational Behavior, Vol 14, pp 224-47
Nguyen, T., & Rose, J (2009) Building trust—Evidence from Vietnamese entrepreneurs Journal of Business Venturing 24 165-182
Nguyen, P., Babar, M.A., & Verner, J (2006) Trust in Software Outsourcing Relationships: An Analysis of Vietnamese Practitioners' Views
Nunnally, J C (1967) Psychometric theory New York: McGraw-Hill
Pallant, J (2010) SPSS survival manual: a step by step guide to data analysis using SPSS Maidenhead: Open University Press/McGraw-Hill
Park, J., Lee, H., Jang, J., & Lee, J (2013) Roles of Technical and Functional Service Quality and Cognitive and Affective Trust in IT Service Encounter
Ring, P., & Van de Ven, A (1994) Development processes of cooperative interorganisational relationships, Academy of Management Review, Vol 19, No 1, pp 90-118
Sako, M (1992) Prices, Quality, and Trust: Inter-firm Relations in Britain and
Japan Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Scott, J.E (2000) Facilitating Interorganizational Learning with Information Technology Journal of Management Information Systems, vol 17, no 2, pp.81-113,
Seppọnen, R., Blomqvist, K., & Sundqvist, S (2007) Measuring inter- organizational trust-A critical review of the empirical research in 1990-
Skinner, S J., Gassenheimer, J B., & Kelley, S W (1992) Cooperation in supplier-dealer relations Journal of Retailing, 68(2), 174–193
The World Bank (Oct, 2019) The World Bank in Vietnam: Overview Retrieved January 12, 2020, from https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/vietnam/overview
Wang, X., Tajvidi, M., Lin, X., & Hajli, N (2019) Towards an Ethical and Trustworthy Social Commerce Community for Brand Value Co-creation: A trust-Commitment Perspective Journal of Business Ethics
Zaheer, A., & Harris, D (2005) Interorganizational Trust Handbook of strategic alliances, Oded Shenkar and Jeffrey J Reuer, eds., Chapter 10, pp.169-197, Sage Publications, 2006 Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract56082
Zaheer, A., McEvily, B., & Perrone, V (1998) Does trust matter? Exploring the effects on interorganisational and interpersonal trust on performance Organisation
Zikmund, W., Babin, B., Carr, J., & Griffin, M (2013) Business Research Methods
9th ed Mason, OH: South-Western, p Chapter 4
Zineldin, M & Jonsson, P (2000) An examination of the main factors affecting trust/commitment in supplier-dealer relationships: An empirical study of the Swedish wood industry The TQM Magazine 12 245-265
Zur, A., Leckie, C., & Webster, C (2012) Cognitive and affective trust between Australian exporters and their overseas buyers Australasian Marketing Journal (AMJ) 20 73-79 10.1016/j.ausmj.2011.08.001.