The Trust Field Model Of Partner Selection In Virtual Enterprises

With the development of computer networks and related technology, networking andglobalization has become the main features of modern economic. The environment of modernmarket is rapidly changing and competition among the enterprises is increasingly fierce,many managers are facing difficulties predicament. When market opportunities emerge, it isdifficult for enterprises to seize the fleeting opportunity just by their own resources. Thevirtual enterprise arises as the times require.Virtual Enterprise is a distributed networked dynamic organization which responds tothe changing marketplace environment in a flexible and fast way. Different enterprises withdifferent resources and advantages constitute an enterprise alliance for mutual benefit,develop new markets and cope with other competitors together. The enterprises which areinvolved in the virtual enterprise aim at an extraordinary goal which they cannot achieve ontheir own resources.Cooperation is the soul of virtual enterprise and trust is the basis for cooperation. Amongthe factors of affecting the business cooperation, mutual trust plays a key role, both as aprerequisite for cooperative relations, but also an important driver of successful cooperation.In the forming process of the virtual enterprises, how to choose a trustworthy partner is thekey procedure.There are two important point in field theory: one is the interaction, one is the continuityof the interaction. It can be found that there are connection between the field theory and thevirtual enterprises from the study. The two points of field theory are introduced into theresearch on virtual enterprises. Aim at the problem of partner selection in virtual enterprises,this paper presents the trust field concept with the combination of field theory and trustmechanism, and establishes a theoretical model of the trust field. The paper elaborates on themethod which is based on the trust field model of partner selection in virtual enterprises. Themethod in this paper considers not only both the resource status and the resourcecomplementarities of the leader and the candidate partner entity, but also the reputation of theentities. In the trust field model, the stronger the resource complementarities are and the higher the reputation is, the more suitable the entity is. Partner selection process based ontrust field model is divided into three procedures: the first is the search based on trustenvelops, the second is the search based on trust the gravity, and the last is the search basedon recommended. Finally both availability and rationality are illustrated by applying anexample.