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Purpose – Structural embeddedness of social networks within and beyond work organizations has shown its association with the innovation at work for employees from literature. Structural embeddedness includes three dimensions: the diversity, density, and trust of accessed networks. This chapter attempts to compare how structural embeddedness mechanizes on innovation at work differently for employees in hi-tech and non-hi-tech sectors.Methodology/approach – We analyzed 1,817 cases of currently employed respondents from the 2005 Taiwan national survey on social capital. All the indicators on structural embeddedness are operationalized from position-generated networks, and we performed regression models for total, hi-tech, and non-hi-tech samples.Findings – Except the universal effects of diversity on innovation at work for employees in both hi-tech and non-hi-tech sectors, density and trust of accessed networks significantly affect innovation at work only for employees in non-hi-tech sectors. There is a slight interaction effect between trust and density on innovation at workplaces. Those individuals with high-degree trust in accessed networks tend to have a lower degree of innovation while their network density is high. It implies that complementary networks seem to be more useful for applying new ideas at the workplace for non-hi-tech workers.Originality/value of chapter – This chapter contributes to the literature by presenting the importance of structural embeddedness of accessed social networks for innovation at work.

In this chapter, the authors examine trust and social networks among entrepreneurs operating in a developing market context. At the centre of this study, trust emerges from the interplay of a range of cultural-specific factors, each of which describes how social relations shape economic action. Using case studies of exporting Nigerian small and medium sized enterprises, the authors document how exporting arrangements are enforced across West African markets. Interview data reveal how entrepreneurs take advantage of indigenous trust-based relationships to enforce exporting agreements. It is clear that exporting activities are shaped by trust and networks of kinship and market associations that permeate the West African region. This chapter facilitates a better understanding of trust and the range of indigenous relationships that underpin exporting activities in Nigeria and particularly across West Africa.

The purpose of this paper is to attempt to calculate the trust degree between two enterprises in an industrial network using grey correlation degree algorithm for exploring characteristics of community structure and evolution rules of cluster cooperation networks in axle‐type and satellite‐type clusters.

Starting from analysis of trust formation mechanism of inter‐enterprise in industrial networks, adjacency of inter‐enterprise relationship, their information acquisition ability, their influence power in network and their past interaction experience are chosen as influencing factors of the trust between two enterprises. Grey correlation degree algorithm was chosen to calculate the trust degree between two enterprises in an industrial network. According to the rules of dynamic adjustment of trust degree originated from thoughts of the prisoners' dilemma model, computer simulation is applied to explore characteristics of community structure and evolution rules of cluster cooperation network in axle‐type and satellite‐type clusters.

With the dynamic adjustment of enterprises' trust degree, the network density of axle‐type and satellite‐type cluster networks was decreasing as the cluster scale was enlarging, and eventually tended to be stable; community structure was emerged in axle‐type and satellite‐type industrial clusters as the cluster scale was enlarging; community characteristics were obviously stronger in axle‐type cluster networks than in satellite‐type; communities were overlapped in axle‐type cluster networks, that is, bridge nodes emerged between communities.

This paper is the first to apply the grey correlation degree algorithm to calculate the trust degree between two enterprises in cluster networks for designing the rules of dynamic adjustment of trust degree.

Security is one of the major challenges in the design and implementation of protocols for mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs). In such systems, the cooperation between nodes is one of the important principles being followed in the current research works to formulate various security protocols. Many existing works assume that mobile nodes will follow prescribed protocols without deviation. However, this is not always the case, because these networks are subjected to a variety of malicious attacks. Since there are various models of attack, trust routing scheme can guarantee security and trust of the network. The purpose of this paper is to propose a novel trusted routing model for mitigating attacks in MANETs.

The proposed model incorporates the concept of trust into the MANETs and applies grey relational analysis theory combined with fuzzy sets to calculate a node’s trust level based on observations from neighbour nodes’ trust level, these trust levels are then used in the routing decision-making process.

In order to prove the applicability of the proposed solution, extensive experiments were conducted to evaluate the efficiency of the proposed model, aiming at improving the network interaction quality, malicious node mitigation and enhancements of the system’s security.

The proposed solution in this paper is a new approach combining the fundamental basics of fuzzy sets with the grey theory, where establishment of trust relationships among participating nodes is critical in order to enable collaborative optimisation of system metrics. Experimental results indicate that the proposed method is useful for reducing the effects of malicious nodes and for the enhancements of system’s security.

As social networking services are popular, the need for recognizing reliable people has become the main concern. Quantifying the relationships between the users of social networks is also one of the important challenges with the increasing number of users. So, trust plays an important role in social networks in order to recognize trustworthy people. The purpose of this paper is to propose an approach to recognize trustworthy users and protect users from abuse by untrustable users.

In this paper, the authors suggest a method to measure the trust value between users of social networks based on call log histories such as abundance, novelty, and sincerity and quality of service (QoS) requirements such as accessibility, response ability, tend to respond, and agility. After that, the authors calculate error-hit, precision, and recall to evaluate the trust value.

The results indicate that the proposed approach has better performance in terms of error-hit, precision, and recall than FIFO, combined, QoS-based, and call log-based method.

In this paper, the trust issue in social networks is pointed out and a new approach to evaluate the trust value is proposed based on call log histories and QoS requirements.

Alliances are an important form of cooperation in the contemporary world. Although most of the different alliances have been rigorously studied, one type of alliance has been neglected: a multi-supplier network forcing potential competitors to cooperate. The purpose of this kind of network is to develop and maintain complex technological systems, such as ICT systems for the public sector. The coopetitive nature of the network poses numerous difficulties for productivity. This paper aims to explore how trust-building can mitigate such difficulties.

The data were gathered via 16 semi-structured interviews and analyzed using data-driven content analysis. The respondents were representatives of the private and public sectors in Finland, tasked with building an ICT system for the Finnish Defense Forces in a multi-supplier network.

The paper found that trust-building is influenced by structural and functional factors. For example, roles and responsibilities emerged as an important structural factor, and communication was seen as a crucial functional factor.

The paper identifies factors that have to be managed properly for a multi-supplier network to function effectively and efficiently.

The paper positions the multi-supplier network within the alliance framework. It also contributes to the literature on trust by identifying factors that influence trust-building.

Interpersonal trust is an important element of Chinese guanxi network. In this chapter, we examine Chinese guanxi network from a trust perspective. We adopt the distinction that trust could be built on either a socio-emotional basis (affect-based trust) or an instrumental basis (cognition-based trust) and use this lens to examine cultural differences in Chinese and Western social networks. Specifically, we will discuss (a) how the two dimensions of trust are related in the Chinese versus American context, and (b) how affect-based trust is associated with different forms of social exchange in Chinese versus American social networks. Because dyadic relationships are embedded within larger social networks, trust between two network actors is also likely to be influenced by the social context that surrounds them. Hence, we also examine how dyadic trust is shaped by higher-level network properties such as density.

Although extant research on trust focuses on the dyadic relationship (trustor-trustee), the effectiveness of an employee's outcome may vary depending on the features of trust networks. This study examined how an employee's centrality in two types of trust networks (cognitive and affective) among coworkers is associated with employee job performance. Further, this study highlighted the mediating role of compassionate help in the effect of affective trust networks on individual performance.

Survey data were collected from 204 employees and 39 team leaders in South Korea. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

The results indicated that cognitive trust centrality is positively associated with employee job performance, but affective trust centrality is not. However, an affective trust centrality indirectly increases individual performance via compassionate helping from coworkers.

This study contributes to a better understanding of trust networks and compassionate helping and expands both trust literature and HQR research.

Argues that the unidirectional measurement and evaluation of the trust in a specific business relationship is not enough to understand the trust between two actors in a dyadic business relationship. Furthermore, mutual trust may not always be sufficient to understand the trust in a specific dyadic business relationship. The incorporation of a third actor may improve the understanding of trust in dyadic business relationships. Therefore, a method is applied to analyze the dynamics of trust in triadic business networks.

Business networks have to coordinate each of their partners' goals and expectations, as a lack of partner compatibility and goal incongruence could lead to conflict and opportunistic behavior. These potential problems highlight the relevance of partner selection as a means of minimizing opportunistic behavior by building trust in and commitment to a network that influences network performance. The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into partner selection as a management control mechanism, which controls the behavior and network performance of business network partners.

The paper provides an analysis of the effects of a well‐executed partner selection on business networks' performance. The paper further analyzes the effects of the mediating role of trust within, commitment to, and the risk of opportunistic behavior in business networks. Consequently, the paper highlights the pivotal role of partner selection in business networks as a management control mechanism.

The results provide an exploratory empirical insights into the cause‐and‐effect relationship between partner selection, partners' behavior, and network performance. Partner selection has effects on trust, opportunism, and commitment. The selection of a partner is a very important managerial control task within business networks, as appropriate selection is a threshold condition for a successful business network.

Since the study is based on empirical data collected by individuals, it could be open to general criticism regarding the methodology of broad empirical analysis. Time‐lagging effects also remain unrevealed as the data represent only a point in time. Some effects cannot be verified indisputably, while the low variance in some of the construct results is only indicative of suggestions.

This paper provides insights into partner selection as a management control mechanism, which controls the behavior and network performance of business network partners.