Exploring the association between trust and contracting in agribusiness sector: Evidence from Albania

Abstract

. This paper seeks to explore the association between trust in the main buyer and contract farming in the agribusiness sector. Despite numerous studies in this field, there is no consensus among scholars, which is the motivation behind undertaking the present study. The research is based on primary data collected through a structured survey in Albania (640 respondents) during December 2019 and January 2020. Several methods were used to examine the relationship between trust and contract farming, including factor analysis, a reliability test, and a non-parametric statistical technique. The results show that trust and contracting have a significant relationship in the context of the agribusiness sector. Moreover, the findings demonstrate that there is a positive correlation, meaning that those with a verbal or written contract exhibit higher trust than those without any prior agreement to sell the product. The scientific contribution of this study is that it presents further arguments and justifications to a controversial discussion and sheds light on a little-studied context such as Albania.