Analysis of Factors Influencing Labor Fishermen’s Trust Toward Boat Owners in Pulau Baai, Bengkulu City

Fishing communities often rely on trust-based relationships to sustain fair and effective partnerships between labor fishermen and boat owners. However, studies on trust in small-scale fisheries have generally focused on economic outcomes, leaving relational and behavioral aspects less explored. Addressing this gap, the novelty of this research lies in integrating relational satisfaction, power-dependence dynamics, and honesty into a single empirical trust model, specifically within the socio-economic interactions of small-scale fisheries in Indonesia. The objectives of this study are: (1) to assess the level of trust that labor fishermen have toward boat owners in Pulau Baai, Bengkulu City; and (2) to analyze the factors influencing that trust. This study involved 77 labor fishermen as respondents and employed both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The findings indicate that labor fishermen generally exhibit a high level of trust toward boat owners, with an overall Likert index score of 78.00%. Regression results further reveal that three independent variables significantly influence trust: satisfaction in the relationship (X1), power-dependence dynamics (X3), and absence of deceit (X4)