Yes / Communication is fundamental to the transfer of information between individuals, agencies and organizations, and therefore, it is crucial to planning and decision-making particularly in cases of uncertainty and risk. This paper brings forth some critical aspects of communication that need to be acknowledged and considered while managing risks. Most of the previous studies and theories on natural hazards and disaster management have limited perspective on communication, and hence, its implication is limited to awareness, warnings and emergency response to some selected events. This paper exposes the role of communication as a moderator of not just risk interpretation and action but also various factors responsible for shaping overall response, such as individual decision-making under uncertainty, heuristics, past experiences, learning, trust, complexity, scale and the social context. It suggests that communication is a process that influences decision-making in multiple ways, and therefore, it plays a critical role in shaping local responses to various risks. It opens up the scope for using communication beyond its current use as a tool to manage emergency situations. An in-depth understanding of ongoing communication and its implications can help to plan risk management more effectively over time rather than as a short-term response.

Yes / The trust and confidence of citizens in their governments has been declining in recent decades. Electronic government (e-government) is seen as a means to reverse this trend. Despite conflicting conclusions in the literature, there is a consensus that e-government-led transformation can improve citizen confidence and trust in government. This research investigates the influence of e-government-led transformation on citizen trust and confidence in the context of a developing country, the Kingdom of Bahrain. A conceptual model is developed, tested and validated using an online survey targeting ordinary citizens of the country. Based on 313 responses, the findings suggest that citizen trust and confidence is positively influenced by a government transformation, and this relationship is mediated by both government performance and citizen satisfaction. In addition, the results show that key factors must be met to achieve transformed government through the use of e-government systems: transparency, accountability, and meeting citizens’ expectations.

Yes / This article presents an integrative review of the rapidly growing body of research on trust in work teams. We start by analyzing prominent definitions of trust and their theoretical foundations, followed by different conceptualizations of trust in teams emphasizing its multilevel, dynamic, and emergent nature. We then review the empirical research and its underlying theoretical perspectives concerning the emergence and development of trust in teams. Based on this review, we propose an integrated conceptual framework that organizes the field and can advance knowledge of the multilevel nature of trust in teams. Our conclusion is that trust in teams resides at multiple levels of analysis simultaneously, is subject to factors across levels in organizations, and impacts performance and other relevant outcomes both at the individual and team levels. We argue that research should not only differentiate between interpersonal trust between members from collective trust at the team level, but also emphasize the interplay within and between these levels by considering cross-level influences and dynamics. We conclude by proposing four major directions for future research and three critical methodological recommendations for study designs derived from our review and framework. / NASA/Johnson Space Center. Grant Number: NNJ16HP08P

Yes / This study aims to examine the drivers and impact of et-moone on relational governance within B2B relationships in the Arab Asian region. Building on commitment and trust theory, this study proposes how et-moone could be driven by IT-enabled interactions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were collected using an online questionnaire survey from the food, pharmaceutical, detergent and sterilizer industries in Jordan and Saudi Arabia. A two-stage structural equation modelling approach was used to test the model. The results largely support the significant impact of et-moone predictors. A strong and significant relationship was also found between et-moone and relational governance. This study expands the theoretical horizon of et-moone by considering a new driver (i.e., IT-enabled interactions) and its consequences in terms of relational governance. The outcomes of the current study also make contributions for both practitioners and researchers who are interested in socio-cultural values (i.e., et-Moone) in Arabic countries. An in-depth discussion on the above is presented in the subsections on theoretical and practical implications.

Yes / We examine the role of generalized social trust in substituting for employment protection legislation. Using foreign direct investment from the US to a sample of OECD countries, we find that trust diminishes the importance of formal employment regulations in investment attractiveness.

Traffic congestion, high gas price and inadequate public transportation are major challenges for any country, business or individual. The traditional approach to solving these problems has been to improve public transportation and use greener energy. These approaches require huge investment, research and time, and can only be carried out by governments or businesses. An alternative solution seeks to reduce the number of vehicles on the road based on ridesharing. Nevertheless, ridesharing is not a popular form of public transportation. A ridesharing application involves planning and collaboration in setting up rides. Some of the concerns of users of these applications are social discomfort that arises due to lack of trust amongst co-passengers and inconvenience in scheduling rides. In this work we are trying to understand the perceptions of trust in a software application that integrates collaboration and social networks. We conducted a rideshare needs assessment survey conducted within the Virginia Tech community. The purpose behind this survey was to understand commuters travel patterns, their needs and to identify their preferences for private vehicles and public transit for a variety of travel needs. The survey results indicate that users are willing to increase participation in ridesharing programs if three core issues are addressed trust, convenience and incentives. Based on the results and analysis of our survey results we present an iPhone based ridesharing application that would leverage social networks to embed trust. To overcome the complexity in scheduling rides, we have made our application available on mobile phones (iPhone) so that users are connected on the go and make use of GPS for location awareness to plan their rides instantaneously. Our social software application is easy and intuitive to use, helps users find trusted rideshares and reduces the carbon footprint of the individual. / Master of Science

Background: Opportunities for companies to interact with both each other and consumers expand drastically due to the everyday life that is getting more digital. Something that is important for businesses is loyalty. In order to gain loyalty from a customer, companies need to gain the customer’s trust first. Trust has a significant role when business is conducted, but since there is a larger distance in an online context where there is a lack of direct contact trust gets more vital. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explain the impacts of antecedents on trust in an online B2B context. Hypotheses: H1: Ability has a positive impact on trust in an online B2B context H2: Benevolence has a positive impact on trust in an online B2B context H3: Internalised norms has a positive impact on trust in an online B2B context H4: Accountability has a positive impact on trust in an online B2B context Methodology: A quantitative research approach has been used and the empirical data has been collected through a questionnaire. Conclusion: The hypotheses are being rejected in the conclusion due to lack of significance in the relationship between the concept trust online and the concepts: ability, benevolence, internalised norms and accountability. Since there was no relation the conceptual model was rejected as well.

The electronic commerce, or e-commerce, grows each year and with this type of commerce comes unique problems that regular commerce does not have to deal with. E-commerce means that consumers cannot physically touch goods nor have face to face conversations with the retailer. Thus e-commerce involves unique trust issues compared to regular commerce. A key factor for the success of e-commerce is actively working towards gaining consumers trust and one aiding tool to do just that is using web design to gain it. The purpose of this study has been to generate a greater understanding of how web design influences consumer trust towards e-shops. To answer the studies research questions a literature review combined with a group interview and a survey has been carried out. The conclusion of this study points toward that concepts within web design influences consumer trust by various degree. Structure and layout were concepts of e-shops design that is of most importance for gaining consumer trust, even if the aesthetic appearance of e-shops is important.

In order to create sustainable competitive advantages, organizations are embedded in dyadic exchange relationships, which depend on the coordination of the behavior of the actors involved. Often, coordinated behavior is explained by trust. Since trust develops in a process of reciprocal responses to presumed trustworthy behavior, it is a reciprocity-based concept. While inter-organizational exchange relationships can appear in different stages (forming, establishing, broken), different reciprocity types (direct, indirect, negative) can be distinguished. The study links reciprocal behavior to different stages of inter-organizational exchange relationships in order to investigate reciprocity as a possible coordination mechanism of behavior and thus explore the basis of coordination of trust-based behavior. Qualitative Comparative Analysis as a set-theoretic approach is applied to analyze the empirical data consisting of 78 qualitative semi-structured interviews with managers of small-, medium- and large-sized companies. The results show that different reciprocity types become effective in different stages of an inter-organizational exchange relationship: For forming inter-organizational exchange relationships indirect reciprocal behavior, besides direct reciprocity, becomes effective while in establishing inter-organizational exchange relationships, direct reciprocal behavior is evident. Negative reciprocal behavior leads to a break up of relationships. Using these results, on the one hand, the concept of trust can be sharpened by deepening the understanding of the trust-building mechanisms and on the other hand, reciprocity can be seen as coordination mechanism in exchange relationships of different stages. In doing so, with this knowledge, relationships can be coordinated towards a long-term orientation in order to create sustainable advantages.

The objective of this thesis is to place trust fund into the system of tax law and the analyse of this position from different angles. The main objective is to describe, how are trust funds and the persons connected with them, taxed. One of the aims of this thesis is to show trust funds within a broader context and therefore it describes the tax aspects of English common law trust as well. Common law trust can be considered as a role model for institute like the Czech trust fund. The thesis therefore consists of two parts - trust and trust fund. The first chapter describes historical development of trusts and illustrate how was this development influenced by then tax legislature. Also, this chapter explains some aspects of English law, with focus on difference between common law and equity. The grasp of the difference between these parallel systems is essential for the understanding of trust. The second chapter deals mainly with substantive aspects of trust. It strives to answer the question, what is trust and how can we definite it. It also shows, how the tax legislature defines trust and connected person for tax purposes. It is also briefly mentioned the duty of trust to register into newly established trust register. The third chapter deals with taxation of trust itself. Different types of trusts and...