Recognizing the Links between Power and Trust in Managing Supply Chain Relationships

In order to manage supply chain relationships effectively both aspects - the need to align the actions in order to coordinate the network and the alignment of interests of cooperating actors – are important. Therefore, the coexistence of both cooperative and competitive constructs should be recognized, where power coexists alongside with trust. Many scientific works have been written on power and trust as constructs of business-to-business relationships separately. However, most of the existing relationship marketing literature studies power and trust in relation to conflict or satisfaction, and the link between power and trust in the supply chain context appears to be largely ignored as a research topic. Some scientists assert that power negates cooperation and call power to be the antithesis of trust. Others argue that most social relationships are based on a mixture of both power and trust, that power and trust by no means exclude each other but occur in combination and that they should both be seen as alternative mechanisms for coordinating supply chain relationships. In order to understand the links between these two constructs one needs to be specific on their nature and origin. Based on the literature review we present ideas on how power and trust in supply chain relationships are related.