Relationship between trust and cooperation: an empirical study of inter-organisational relationships in Vietnam

The empirical study was conducted and used correlation and regression analysis to examine how cognitive trust and affective trust were associated with cooperation through the[r]

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

VIETNAM JAPAN UNIVERSITY

-

NGUYEN NGOC CUONG

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TRUST AND COOPERATION: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

VIETNAM JAPAN UNIVERSITY

-

NGUYEN NGOC CUONG

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TRUST AND COOPERATION: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES iii

LIST OF FIGURES iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS v

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT vi

ABSTRACT vii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Practical issues 1

1.2 Theoretical gap and research objective 2

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 3

2.1 Trust 3

2.2 Relationship commitment 4

2.3 Cooperation 5

2.4 Theoretical gap 5

2.5 Hypothesis formulation 8

2.6 Research model 10

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY AND DATA COLLECTION 11

3.1 Research scope 11

3.2 Research design 11

3.3 Research scales 12

3.4 Process of collecting data 13

3.5 Characteristics of respondents 14

3.6 Descriptive statistics analysis 17

3.7 Reliability and validity 19

CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 23

4.1 Exploratory factor analysis of CT and AT 23

4.2 Correlation coefficients analysis 24

4.3 Regression analysis 26

4.3.1 Regression with AT as dependent variable 26

4.3.2 Regression with RC as dependent variable 27

4.3.3 Regression with COO as dependent variable 29

4.4 Discussion 32

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 35

5.1 Theoretical contributions 35

5.2 Managerial implications 36

5.3 Limitations and recommendations 37

REFERENCES 39

APPENDIXES 45

APPENDIX 1: ITEMS IN MEASUREMENT SCALES 45

APPENDIX 2: QUESTIONNAIRE SURVEY 46

LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1 Demographic characteristic of respondents 14

Table 3.2 Mean and standard deviation 17

Table 3.3 Cronbach’s Alpha 20

Table 4.1 EFA of CT and AT 23

Table 4.2 Transforming representative factors 24

Table 4.3 Correlation coefficients Matrix Analysis 25

Table 4.4 Regression with AT as dependent variable 26

Table 4.5 Regression with RC as dependent variable (CT is predictor) 27

Table 4.6 Regression with RC as dependent variable (AT is predictor) 28

Table 4.7 Regression with COO as dependent variable (RC is predictor) 29

Table 4.8 Regression with COO as dependent variable (CT is predictor) 30

Table 4.9 Regression with COO as dependent variable (AT is predictor) 31

Table 4.10 Summary of the hypothesis testing 32

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1 Conceptual model 10 Figure 4.1 Conceptual model in Vietnam 32

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Firstly, I would like to express deepest gratitude to my parents, who always respect

my decisions and support me for what I have committed Their belief and supports have made my confidence to face challenges and move forward

Likewise, I am grateful to my supervisors Associate Professor Kodo Yokozawa and Associate Professor Vu Anh Dung for making this research project possible Associate Professor Kodo Yokozawa has been kindly, patiently and enthusiastically accompanied and facilitated me in the process of researching from the idea formation to every step on how to do a good scientific research Whilst, Associate Professor Vu Anh Dung critically evaluated the matters and logically explained the reasons of my research His advices helped me recognize the limitations and learnt

to improve them in the research Thanks to my supervisors, my knowledge in the academic research has been truly enriched

I am also thankful to all experts, lecturers and staffs from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Vietnam National University (VNU), Yokohama National University (YNU), Vietnam Japan University (VNU), Waseda University

as well as those, who participated in the questionnaire survey Thanks to all of you,

I really had a memorable and enjoyable time during my post graduate study

Last but not least, I would like to send a special thank you to Dr Yoshifumi Hino I sincerely appreciated and enjoyed the time and the process of learning quantitative research, economics and Japanese language from him

Nguyen Ngoc Cuong

ABSTRACT

This study examined the relationship between trust and cooperation in an interorganizational level A conceptual model was proposed here, which consisted

of affective trust, cognitive trust, relationship commitment and cooperation A total

of 90 usable questionnaires were explored to test the conceptual model using the exploratory factor analysis, correlation and regression analysis on SPSS 26.0 in a current emerging economy The study result presented an insignificant direct relationship between affective trust and cognitive trust with cooperation Cognitive trust was highlighted as the foundation for interorganizational relationship while affective trust was emphasized with the stronger impact on relationship commitment, which influenced positively cooperation Further managerial implications for practices, limitations and recommendations were also discussed

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 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

1.2 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 (Seppänen, 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

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 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; Seppänen et al., 2007)

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 (Seppänen 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

2.2 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, 2000)

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

2.3 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)

2.4 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; Seppänen et al., 2007) Nevertheless, trust facilitated information exchanges, cooperative behaviors and reduced costs of transaction and relationship conflicts (Nguyen, Babar, & Verner, 2006)

In academic study, trust varied from economy, psychology, sociology to business,

(Morgan & Hunt, 1994) In the interorganizational level, the research primarily focused on the relationships between buyers and sellers, business and business, suppliers and manufacturers (Seppänen 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?

2.5 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

& Kurcz, 2020)

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)

2.6 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)

Figure 2.1 Conceptual model

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY AND DATA COLLECTION

3.1 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

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

3.3 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

3.4 Process of collecting data

Mailing and social media were used to collect the data within a month, from 13thMarch 2020 to 12th 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 message for completion

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

3.5 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

Number Percentage

Marketing, sales, customer service 28 31.1

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

50

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

3.6 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

3.7 Reliability and validity

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 (Seppänen 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

Table 3.3 Cronbach’s Alpha

Item-Total Correlation

Cronbach's Alpha if Item Deleted

Cronbach's Alpha

N of Items

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