The trust resource in the knowledge economy

During the last twenty years studies on the enterprise’s intangible assets have increased drastically. In particular, among the invisible assets held by the enterprise, starting from the intellectual asset, it is important to single out the trust resource, which acts as a warranty link with the external environment. This paper aims at analyzing and defining the ‘trust’ asset, starting from the concept itself and moving on to the classification of the types of trust and identification of fiduciary relationships. In this view, if on one hand the trust resource represents one of the components of the enterprise’srelational assets, on the other hand the creation of value for the enterprise seems to be influenced by the possession and exploitation of the intellectual capital – including the relational one – held by each business system. The research issues, therefore, are: What is trust? How can it be defined?