The Negative Impacts of Trust in Long-Term Agri-Food Business Relationships

Trust has been shown to be a key component of a successful business-to-business (B2B) relationship. However, recent studies have pointed to the potential adverse effects on different aspects of the relationship, with a lack of knowledge on how calculative trust and relational trust interact and their ramifications for long-term relationships, particularly in the agri-food context. Fifteen semi-structured interviews were conducted among different members of the rainbow trout and lamb supply chains in Canada. The data indicated that both types of trust can coexist in a long-term relationship, and while calculative trust can give rise to adverse effects such as complacency and payment delays, relational trust can help alleviate some of those impacts.