Operationalising Trust for Supply Chain Sustainability and Resilience

Trust is a key factor in achieving Supply Chain Sustainability (SCS) and Supply Chain Resilience (SCRES). However, the relationship between trust, SCS, and SCRES is poorly understood. This gap in the literature makes it difficult for organisations to use trust to effectively improve supply chain performance. It also limits their ability to enhance trust to build more sustainable and resilient supply chains. This research explores the connection between trust, SCS, and SCRES and offers a framework as well as a tool to help operationalise trust for SCS and SCRES. To address this research area, the study explores the connection between trust, SCS, and SCRES through 22 semi-structured interviews with supply chain professionals who had between 10 and 45 years of experience. The critical incident technique was used to capture rich, practice-based insights. Analysis of these interviews revealed key dynamics of trust within business partnerships and their influence on both sustainability and resilience. From this analysis, 59 observations were identified, covering partnership dynamics, trust dynamics, and their impacts on sustainability and resilience outcomes. Each observation was individually compared to the literature to assess novelty and position within the current literature. Of these, five were identified as novel and are presented as theoretical contributions: (1) Trust and contracts were complementary during BaU and substitutive during disruption, (2) Contracts were ineffective and inflexible tools that struggled to meet the demands of organisations, especially during moments of disruption, (3) Trust levels correlated with alignment of purpose and with complexity and uncertainty of goal, (4) Where technology had removed interpersonal connection, this was reported to create a barrier to trust and (5) A strong correlation between reasons for partner selection and reasons for partnership termination emerged, emphasising the importance of strategic selection. Specifically, the qualities valued during partner selection often mirrored the reasons partnerships later dissolved when these expectations were not met. In addition, a practical trust framework (4FoT) and an accompanying trust operationalisation model (DSTM) were developed to support the application of trust in practice for SCS and SCRES. In sum, the research makes six key contributions: five novel theoretical contributions and a practical trust framework and model.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Cambridge

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Salih, Shayma

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Evans, Steve

• Trust
• Supply Chain Sustainability
• Supply Chain Resilience
• Organisational Trust

Licence

• https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/68234175-2873-47fc-bb68-c7bea158b37c/download
• http://purl.org/NET/rdflicense/allrightsreserved

Language dc:language

eng

DOI dc:identifier.doi

https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.123227

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/392558