All You Need Is Trust? An Examination of Inter-organizational Supply Chain Projects

This study examines the antecedents of supply chain project success. We first propose and test a model that describes the role of relationship‐level factors (trust and asymmetric dependence) and project‐level factors (between‐firm communication and within‐firm commitment) in determining supply chain project success. We find that project‐level factors completely mediate the effect of trust on project success. We conclude that trust, despite being a stronger predictor compared to asymmetric dependence, is necessary but not sufficient for supply chain project success. We then proceed to further explore the role of these factors by introducing a categorical scheme that differentiates supply chain projects based on the decision rights configuration of each project. This categorization enables us to explore how relationship‐level and project‐level factors can have different impact on performance based on the characteristics of a supply chain project. The findings offer insights into how to effectively manage supply chain projects and inter‐firm alliances.