Confidence as a determinant of establishing and developing innovative integration connections in agribusiness

Abstract

Trust is the main product of the norms of social co-operation anchored in the national and group culture that make up social capital. The main objective of the study is to show the importance of trust in initiating and developing innovative integration ties, such as cluster structures. It plays a special role in creating the expansion of integration links - the participants of the integrated system give the trust to each other, with an indication of the leader of the cluster. Confidence creates opportunities to reduce transaction costs that are extremely important in the functioning of mechanisms, where, on the one hand, any particularizes, and on the other, too much regulation and procedures can disrupt both the cluster’s own way of functioning and influence the dominance of corporate and bureaucratic culture. The study presents the results of own research carried out among entrepreneurs-participants of cluster structures operating in the agribusiness of the Podkarpackie Province. They show that the level of trust, being a key factor of social capital, is the basis for building every structure of network cooperation. It was also proved that properly functioning, as well as forming integration structures occurring in the economy, are one of the essential conditions for its dynamic expansion.