The impact of trust on cooperative membership retention, performance, and satisfaction: an exploratory study

Abstract

This research explores the effect of trust in the relationships among members and between members and the management teams of two agricultural marketing cooperatives (co-ops). Specifically, this research focuses on the impact of trust on co-op members’ performance, satisfaction, and their commitment to remaining a part of the co-ops. We examine trust along two dimensions: cognitive and affective. We argue that cognitive-based trust will be more salient in some contexts while affective-based trust will be more salient in other settings. Findings suggest that in both co-ops, trust among members and trust between members and co-op management are important predictors of group cohesion, which is a measure of the strength of members’ desires to remain in a group (co-op) and their commitment to it. As hypothesized, there are differences in the effects of cognitive and affective trust, depending upon differences in the contexts represented by the two co-ops.