Cost considerations, then, dictated the initial switch from in-house production to reliance on the market. Further discussion showed, however, that these evolving market relations were a far cry from those of the standard textbook, where 'faceless buyers and sellers meet for an instant to exchange standardized goods.' By 1984-85 the firms had begun to use a suggestive word to describe their relationship to these new subcontractors: partnership (partenariat). In the course of conversations in which I myself participated, other equally emotive terms evoked the nature of interfirm relations: the importance of loyalty (fidélité); the existence of a moral contract (contrat moral); and the need for mutual trust (confiance mutuelle).

XREF: Contrasts with textbook neoclassical economics where market exchanges are faceless and instantaneous. Connects to broader literature on embeddedness and relational contracting.

Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking…, loc. 2494