Determinants of on-going trust within a collaboration

In a collaboration, trust is of great importance for the substantial governance of the inter-organizational activities. In this paper, considering changes of collaboration situations, an on-going trust model is established for a better understanding of the dynamics of relationship. Determinants of the on-going trust condition are also gathered and structured in two clusters. Those are `initial trust situation' and `the experiences which have influence on the trust'. A general interpreting function is formulated, which attempts to reveal the impact of these determinants and to shed some light on the theory of collaboration management. An online survey based on the experience of organizations was further conducted for the analysis. In the end, the trust determinant set was confirmed to hold high reliable properties, and the impacts of these determinants have also been proved. All these are composed as a theoretical basis which helps to provide sound decision support for the strategies of collaboration.