What is the Effect of Covid on Different Trust Levels among Supply Chain Relationships?

Many existing studies have focused on trust development in various commercial interactions. Trust has become increasingly crucial in Supply Chain Management, and many academics have tried to identify possible practices to increase trust development in supply chain relationships (SCRs) and to mitigate its negative effect of disruptions, such as Covid. Drawing on previous literature, this study examines the effect of Covid on different trust level’s ability, benevolence, and integrity used for trust measurements, based on the trust concept of Mayer et al. (1995). A qualitative, multiple-case study was conducted analyzing three different SCRs. Additionally, the impact of the disruptions through Covid on the occurrence of challenges and opportunities for the relationships were analyzed. The findings yield some interesting insights. Firstly, Covid acts as an amplifier on different trust levels among supplier and buyer relationships. Secondly, the study reveals that the decreased trust relationship encountered the most challenges through the disruptions but also captured opportunities. Increasing trust relationships showed more resilience against Covid and did not deal with challenges on SCRs but solely gained improvement opportunities.