Despite the widespread acceptance of trust as an informal governance institution, our understanding of its origins is nascent. Our review of the literature identified two distinct explanations: trust emerges from either a shadow of the past (i.e. prior history) or a shadow of the future (i.e....

Despite the prevalent role of guanxi in conducting business in Chinese, it is unclear whether interpersonal guanxi fosters interfirm trust. Taking a contingency approach, this study examines how institutional (government-market relationship and Buddhism influence) and individual (relative role...