The second weakness is that the strategies I sketch for the various participants are not the only credible ones. It follows that the outcome I describe is not the only viable one. There are other, equally credible, sets of strategies that result in outcomes which do not have this form of reputation acquisition, where transactions are not undertaken for a great many periods. In short, such repeated games possess more than one equilibrium outcome (see Fudenberg and Maskin 1986). There is therefore no guarantee that the one I have outlined will prevail. It is here that historical accidents may matter.

XREF: Relates to game theory concepts like the folk theorem and multiple equilibria in repeated games.

Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking…, loc. 1008