Research On The Influence Of Trust Networks On Cooperative Efficiency Of Project Participants

A stable and efficient cooperative relationship between project participants will promote the success and value realization of the construction project,but participants often engage in opportunistic behavior or often resist cooperation,presenting a state of inefficient cooperation.Previous studies have shown that inter-organizational trust can inhibit the participator’s opportunistic behavior and affect the cooperation process.However,previous studies have ignored the network structure of the trust relationship between the construction participants,so the influencing mechanism of the cooperation efficiency of the participants and the key influencing factors are still unclear.To solve the above problems,based on social network theory and considering objective relational situation factors,this study uses empirical research,computer modeling and simulation methods to carry out the following four aspects of research according to the research framework of ‘network structure-individual behavior-global performance’.1)Identification of the mechanisms influencing the efficiency of participant cooperation.The trust relationships among project participants are interwoven and constitute a trust networks,and the literature analysis shows that the structural characteristics of trust networks have an impact on the cooperative efficiency and opportunistic behavior of project participants,and this process is regulated by the situational factors of inter-organizational dependence.2)Development of a scale to measure the trust networks of project participants.The structural dimensions of participator’s trust networks are determined,and the measurement items are identified according to literature review.The initial measurement scale was constructed and empirically analyzed to test the reliability and validity of the measurement scale.The results show that the scale contains two dimensions and 12 measurement items.3)Inspection of the influence mechanism of cooperative efficiency of project participates.The structural equation model(SEM)was used to test the hypotheses.The results show that there are direct effects,mediating effects and moderating effects among the cooperation efficiency and its influencing factors,but the correlation and degrees of the effects are heterogeneous.4)Analysis of the mechanism of the dynamic evolution of trust networks on the opportunistic behavior propagation of participates.The agent-based modeling and simulation(ABMS)is used to calculate the results.The results show that with the advancement of time series,the participator’s opportunistic behavior propagation and its implementation tendency are affected by the difference of trust networks density and centralization.Combined with the direct and mediating effects of opportunistic behavior on cooperation efficiency revealed by the empirical research above,the project governance strategy should comprehensively consider the dynamic evolution of trust networks with project progress.The theoretical contributions of this study are mainly shown in three aspects: First,analyzed the influencing mechanism model of cooperative efficiency of project participants.Then,reveal the relationship among the characteristics of trust networks,opportunistic behavior and cooperation efficiency of project participants.Second,the measurement scale of trust networks of project participants is constructed to provide a measurement basis for the follow-up study of inter-organizational trust.Third,agentbased modeling and simulation is used to characterize the structure of trust networks,which provides basic code and modeling ideas for subsequent research on dynamic simulation of trust networks.The results of this study will be beneficial to optimize the cooperative management of the project participator and provide theoretical guidance for improving the trust networks structure of the project participator.It provides theoretical support for promoting the credit evaluation of construction engineering enterprises,improving the system of encouraging trustworthy and punishing dishonest enterprises under the framework of "Unified National Market".