In preparation for Chapters 5–7 – which detail the three components of the proposed trust-based framework – this chapter addresses three issues. With reference to the social rights literature, it first substantiates the conclusion that social rights are justiciable, justifying the need for an enforcement framework to be used by the courts. Secondly, the chapter describes how the courts can use the concept of political trust as the basis for a social rights enforcement framework. It explains that under the trust-based framework, the courts promote the elected branches’ trustworthiness with respect to social rights. The courts specifically hold the elected branches to a ‘standard of trustworthiness’, effectively enforcing the three constituent expectations of trust in the citizen-government relationship – goodwill, competence and fiduciary responsibility. Lastly, the chapter outlines four justifications – theoretical, instrumental, practical and democratic – for why political trust should provide the basis for a social rights enforcement framework.

Facial appearance plays an important role in how we form first impressions of others throughout the lifespan. Many studies have demonstrated that individuals consistently infer personality traits from faces, even when they do not accurately reflect a person’s personality. Only recently has this research been extended into examining older faces and how aging affects these trait impressions. This chapter discusses the impact of aging on judgments of four traits based on first impressions: facial competence, trustworthiness, health, and aggressiveness. Judgments for each of these traits are affected by aging, both by physical changes to facial structure and by stereotypes associated with aging. This chapter also discusses how aging affects the accuracy of first impressions from faces, most notably increasing the accuracy of health judgments but having little effect on the accuracy for other traits.

Of particular concern in the literature on business is the importance of trust and the disabling consequences of broken trust on business partnerships. Chapter 3 draws on extensive interviews in exploring the issue of trust, and reports novel findings which lead to new theoretical formulations. It has been central in sociological understanding that embeddedness in social and business exchanges generates and maintains interpersonal trust. Should opportunistic behaviour or violation of trust occur it is routinely assumed that such breaches would be exposed or punished, including reputation loss and exclusion from future exchange opportunities. What is less explored is that breaches of trust in many instances may not lead to disclosure of such a behaviour or termination of exchange relationships. Chapter 3 expands our understanding of broken trust. It identifies and explores mechanisms which operate in avoidance of confrontation, exposure and retaliation in instances of breaches of trust and also strategies employed by entrepreneurs in continuation of exchange relationships with violators of trust. The chapter examines underexplored aspects of the complexity and dynamics of business exchange relations and points to a rethinking of trust and social exchange.

The willingness to trust others does not just happen. We are taught to trust by those who have lived before us and by observing whether it is safe to do so. We are also schooled in the benefits of trustworthiness. The level of trust existing in a society influences the way life is organized. These concerns raise certain questions that we hope to answer in this chapter. For example, how do we learn to trust each other? Once a convention of trust is created, how is it passed on from generation to generation? Does intergenerational communication increase or decrease trust? Does it increase or decrease trustworthiness? Is trust profitable? What is the causal relationship between trust and trustworthiness? In this chapter we use an intergenerational version of the well-known trust game (Berg, Dickhaut, and McCabe, 1995) to help us answer these questions about how trust is developed and communicated to others. We find that advice seems to decrease the amount of trust that evolves when this game is played in an intergenerational manner in that it decreases the amount of money sent from senders to receivers. Ironically, advice increases trustworthiness in that receivers tend to send more back. However, in no case, on average, does it pay to send any money. We explain this contradiction by examining the asymmetrical impact that advice has when serving as an anchor from which sending and returning behavior is adjusted. Further, we have discovered that subjects appear to follow conventions of reciprocity in that they tend to send more if they think the receivers acted in a “kind” manner, where “kind” means the sender sent more money than the receiver expected. Finally, while we find a causal relationship between trustworthiness and trust, the opposite cannot be established. We note that many of our results can only be achieved using the tools offered by intergenerational games. The intergenerational advice offered provides information not available when games are played in their static form. Combining that information with elicited beliefs of the senders and receivers adds even more information that can be used to investigate the motives that subjects have for doing what they do.

The final chapter in this book discusses some methodological considerations and debates surrounding case study research and its quality. In particular, we revisit the topic of research paradigms (i.e. positivism and interpretivism). Relatedly, we discuss different quality criteria as proposed by prior researchers from both paradigmatic camps. In particular, we focus on the rigor versus trustworthiness discussion and the internal versus external validity debate. Afterwards, we briefly discuss the iterative cycles of data collection and analysis one would encounter during a qualitative case study research process. We end the chapter (and subsequently the book) with a guiding framework which will help researchers in sequencing case study designs by acknowledging the weaknesses of individual designs and leveraging their strengths. The framework can be adopted and adapted to suit the specific research objectives of the study in hand.

This chapter will further explore the moral and legal aspects of the nurse–patient relationship, with special attention paid to the role of trust. Lena’s situation demonstrates how a patient can be disempowered and rendered increasingly vulnerable through careless use of professional power. Lena’s sadness at being parted from her friend (a normal reaction) has been turned into a medical condition (or ‘medicalised’), which is then recorded in her file as if it is a fact about her. Then this purported medical condition is used as a reason to pry into Lena’s private life – and all without any consultation with Lena herself. When Lena expresses quite justifiable outrage, she is further cast as a problem patient, and her anger is regarded as part of her emotional instability.

The Book’s theoretical core, Chapter II focuses on two fundamental concepts: the close corporation, and withdrawal. After explaining the close corporation’s distinctive features, I set out its cardinal problems: conflict between minority and majority shareholders, and the enhanced risk of inter-shareholder exploitation. Over time, leading jurisdictions have converged upon shareholder exit as the ultimate solution to shareholder conflict. This Chapter introduces the concept of ‘withdrawal remedies’ as legal mechanisms enabling voluntary shareholder exit from the corporation coupled with an enforceable monetary claim for the value of the withdrawing shareholder’s membership interest. I show how withdrawal remedies are the only class of solutions that 1) resolve intractable conflict and 2) protect minority shareholders. Reasons why shareholders (minority and majority) might find access to withdrawal desirable – and why they might not – are analysed by applying insights and concepts from behavioural law and economics such as ‘sticky defaults’ to the close corporation withdrawal context.

Chapter 2 provides the theoretical framework for the book, focusing on advancing a procedural justice analysis through which the CoP is analysed. This chapter outlines the intrinsic, instrumental and pragmatic reasons why a procedural justice analysis is justified, doing so by reference to the procedural justice literature that shows how and why individuals value fair procedures, as well as analysing the underpinning normative procedural justice questions. Furthermore, it specifically explores how this theoretical frame can operate within and apply to the CoP. The theoretical approach to procedural justice is set out in detail, drawing on feminist literature on embodiment to develop a framework of procedural justice values, including: respect for the individual, flexibility, trustworthiness, neutrality and participation.

Trust is a fundamental constituent of financial market interactions. As well-known cases of corporate failures in past and recent history have illustrated, betraying the trust that investors and other stakeholders put in corporate leaders can bring drastic consequences for the organisation concerned as well as for markets and society at large. A low level of trust in the market makes it more difficult also for sound and ethical business projects to be funded and supported. Research in accounting has highlighted the link between poor/unethical business practices and unsound/deceitful corporate communications, which leads to two interesting implications for business communication researchers and practitioners: (1) discourse analysis and evaluation can become a source for detecting – and possibly avoiding – unreliable business endeavours; (2) improving financial communication skills can enhance the quality of strategic thinking and decision-making as well as help corporate managers to build long-term trust while persuading sceptical stakeholders to support a business initiative. This chapter takes a rhetorical argumentation perspective advocating the crucial role of argumentation skills.

This chapter examines how observers — regulated entities and third parties — perceive the decisions made in the experiments of chapter 5. Rather than studying the trustworthiness of decision-making, that is, this chapter studies how procedures affect the trust that observers place in those decisions. Do the reasoning requirements enhance observers’ trust in decision? If so, what drives any changes in trust: the substantive decision, or the procedural accompaniments of the decision? This chapter attempts to isolate these two typically confounded components that plausibly feed into notions of public sector trust and legitimacy. The analysis indicates that both the substantive decision and the procedural accompaniments enhance perceptions of trust and legitimacy.

This is the first of two empirical chapters that probe implications of the theory using novel experiments that borrow from experimental economics. This chapter examines whether important elements of administrative law—e.g., requirements for reason-giving and analysis—affect decision-making. The basic design of the experiments involves providing people with a responsibility to distribute money under some guidelines, and then experimentally manipulates various reason-giving and analytical requirements. The experiments include elements of information asymmetry and provide participants with financial incentives to deviate from the guidelines, features intended to mimic salient characteristics of decision-making by public officials. The chapter shows that reason-giving requirements and forms of judicial review enhance the trustworthiness of those put in positions of responsibility.