Dynamic Effects of Trust and Cognitive Social Structures on Information Transfer Relationships

Changes in relationships are due to human actions. We assume that these human actions are functions of perceptions of a focal individual, but also the perceptions of other individuals who are part of the organizational and social environment. We hypothesize that perceptions based trust and perceptions of the structural environment individuals operate in affect relationship change more than the "actual" environment in which individuals operate. An empirically analysis shows the dynamic effects of perceptions on changes in two types of relationships, which are believed to be important in account management. We explore, 1, whether the levels of perceptions, and, 2, whether changes in perceptions affect relationship changes. For example, we consider the effects of the amount of trust as well as the change in the amount of trust one individual puts in another individual. We find that perceptions have more impact on relationship change than "actual" network variables have. Furthermore, the results show that it is useful to distinguish between level and change effects of perceptions.