ABSTRACT Previous research has shown that trust is often not a given but grows over time, in a process including various steps of trust-building. In a similar and interrelated vein, the context within which trust emerges is not a given but is continuously processed by the actors involved. The paper explores this understudied research area, namely actors’ continuous efforts in shaping the context of (their) trust (in others), and identifies three basic patterns of contextualisation. These are developed from empirical findings from the case of global microfinance. In particular, fund managers’ various trust strategies and associated contextualisation practices, which help them to determine the trustworthiness of a potential or already existing investee, are investigated. Against this backdrop, the paper confirms, refines and extends existing process theories of trust and, in particular, existing research into ‘active trust’. A key contribution consists of a new concept of active trust, for which the term ‘synthesised trustworthiness’ is coined.

中文翻译：

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强调背景的重要性：信任作为全球小额信贷的一个过程

摘要先前的研究表明，信任通常不是给定的，而是随着时间的推移而增长的，其过程包括建立信任的各个步骤。按照相似且相互关联的方式，建立信任的上下文不是给定的，而是由相关参与者不断处理的。本文探讨了这个尚未被研究的研究领域，即参与者在塑造（他们的）信任（在其他方面）的信任环境中的不懈努力，并确定了上下文化的三种基本模式。这些是根据全球小额信贷案例的经验发现得出的。特别是，研究了基金经理的各种信托策略和相关的语境化实践，以帮助他们确定潜在或已经存在的被投资方的可信度。在此背景下，论文证实，完善并扩展了现有的信任过程理论，尤其是对“主动信任”的现有研究。关键贡献包括主动信任的新概念，为此创造了“综合信任”一词。