Evolving institutions of trust: personalized and institutional bases of trust in Nigerian and Ghanaian food trading

Lyon, Fergus ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6275-4102 and Porter, Gina (2010) Evolving institutions of trust: personalized and institutional bases of trust in Nigerian and Ghanaian food trading. In: Organizational trust: a cultural perspective. Saunders, Mark N. K., Skinner, Denise, Dietz, Graham, Gillespie, Nicole and Lewicki, Roy J., eds. Cambridge Companions to Management . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 255-278. ISBN 9780521492911. [Book Section]

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Abstract

This paper examines the processes of building cooperation in a context of sparse public-sector regulation. The Nigerian and Ghanaian food sectors are characterized by a highly dispersed and fragmented system of micro-entrepreneurs from diverse ethnic groups who both compete and cooperate in order to flourish. Drawing on ethnographic research, we consider the relationships and contracts that require an element of cross-cultural trust, how personal social relations and institutional forms are used to ensure trust, and the role of cultural norms. Our empirical findings indicate that individuals draw on both personalized social relations and institutional forms of trust that are underpinned by culture specific norms. Through personalized trust, traders have been able to operate across cultural boundaries, building common norms of behavior over centuries, and shaping these into what are perceived essentially as professional, albeit personalized, codes of conduct and semi formal institutional forms (such as associations) that function in parallel to the state.

Item Type: Book Section
Additional Information: ISBN 9780521737791 Paperback
Research Areas: A. > Business School > Centre for Enterprise and Economic Development Research (CEEDR)
Item ID: 18893
Notes on copyright: This material has been published in Organizational Trust: A Cultural Perspective Edited by Mark N. K. Saunders, Denise Skinner, Graham Dietz, Nicole Gillespie and Roy J.
Lewicki. This version is free to view and download for personal use only. Not for re-distribution, re-sale or use in derivative works. © Cambridge University Press 2010
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Depositing User: Stanislava Angelova
Date Deposited: 22 Feb 2016 11:36
Last Modified: 30 Nov 2022 01:04
URI: https://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/id/eprint/18893

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