| This study focuses on the role of trust as a criterion and some dimensions of trust in choosing an international wholesaler. Samples were Thai-Chinese suppliers who manufactured and/or exported agricultural products to other countries and had ethnic Chinese as their long-term trading partners. Trust was found to be the most important criterion in choosing an international wholesaler among ethnic Chinese. However, large companies tend to consider other criteria as more important than the trust criterion, for example, financial credibility, marketing performance, and existing distributors.; The trust concept was not found to be universal across cultures. Some dimensions of trust between Thai-Chinese suppliers and other ethnic Chinese wholesalers were evident; personal relationships, ngow-heng (five good characters: eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and eyebrows), ethnicity, and community bound status. The two American measures of trust were adapted to test whether they apply to the Thai-Chinese samples. The study shows a moderate {dollar}Rsp2{dollar} when the American trust index was applied to the Thai-Chinese samples, which leads to the conclusion that the American measures of trust may not consistently explain trust in other cultures, especially in Chinese cultures. The primary implications for not only Asian but also Western companies that want to trade with the ethnic Chinese firms are that they may need to understand trust as the foundation of a long-term relationship, and be able to incorporate into business practices the underlying means of building that trust. |
