Author(s): LEE, P.C., HO, C., CHEN, Y., CHENG, T., Institution: NATIONAL TAICHUNG UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION, Country: TAIWAN, Abstract-ID: 377

Introduction
The apparent development of sports is generally culturally diverse, yet the continuous spread of corruption in sports has evolved to become a global issue, for instance, match-fixing was identified at the beginning of the twenty-first century as a new scourge in sports. In order to understand the advancement of match-fixing within the Taiwanese professional baseball system, through the perspective of trust, this study sought to link and identify those social concepts that have been instrumental in developing professional sport.

Objectives
The present study aims to explore the underlying mechanism of match-fixing by which both individual agendas and organizational interests are served. Insights from organizational sociology differ from economists and legal perspectives but prove convincing to analyze match-fixing.

Materials & Methods
The interviews and literature review were adopted to collect data for analysis and verification. The empirical research was conducted with in-depth interviews, including syndicates, baseball coaches, and former professional baseball players and so on. The interview data is supplemented by analyses of documentary sources such as Taiwanese court transcripts of match-fixing cases, academic articles, and media and press commentaries, etc.

Results & Discussion
The results suggested that trust concepts can be characterized as a form in which social relations configure “support” for various groups of actors. Trust plays a role in match-fixing with the bright and dark sides of trust coexist. The nature of sports can also have an impact on trust. The fact that players have no choice but to trust can be considered the joint effect of identification, obligations, and norms. Players believe that the stakeholders whom they identify as in the same community will not get them in trouble and that their own interests will not be endangered because protective measures are taken to hide illicit agenda.

Conclusions
Using scandals of Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League, trust at the micro and meso levels are examined. These results show that trust and the manipulation of match-fixing were present in the Taiwanese professional baseball system. The actors, their activities, and the intangible resources exchanged in match-fixing can be best understood through the lens of structural, cognitive, and relational trust. However, negative effects of trust are also recognized in match-fixing.