TRUST AND RECIPROCITY IN BARTER OPERATIONS MARKET

The purpose of this study is to analyze the mediating role of trust in the cooperative relationship between reciprocity and intentions to perform barter operations. The study, quantitative-descriptive, used survey techniques with 133 farmers, members of grain production cooperative, located in the northern state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The instrument used scales from Sirdeshmukh, Singh and Sabol (2002) and Pervan, Bove and Johnson (2009). The results show that reciprocity has an indirect effect on intentions to carry out barter operations by farmers. This effect is mediated by the trust that farmers have in the cooperative, indicating that reciprocity is an important predictor of trust, which in turn predicts intentions to perform barter operations. The findings show the importance of reciprocity in economic transactions of this market and its impact on expanding volume of contracts made.