CAN TRUST BETWEEN AN OWNER AND A CONTRACTOR BE ESTABLISHED: A PRINCIPAL-AGENT PERSPECTIVE

The cooperation and trust among the project participants play a critical role in the success or failure of any delivery system in construction industry. But it is very difficult to establish trust between an owner and a contractor when rational people only pursue only their own material self-interest. Based on the principal-agent theory, this paper will introduce the altruistic behavior into the traditional principal-agent model, and model the reciprocal behavior between the owner and contractor. We will show that both the owner and the contractor benefit from their reciprocal behavior, and hence trust establishing between them is possible. More importantly, we will proof that the higher the project uncertainty is, the more important trust establishing is.