Business partners occupy a trust zone between friends and strangers.

Evidence

This is what I take the French managers to mean when they say they know each other and are partners. Perhaps this relation can best be conceived as an intermediate level between friends and stranger, for which capitalist societies have developed a distinctive tolerance. — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 2624

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the ‘partners’ relationship as an intermediate trust gradient between friends and strangers — a precise conceptual category useful for the Luhmann/Hardin synthesis.
• XREF: Directly parallels Hardin’s trust-as-encapsulated-interest and Luhmann’s familiarity gradient; also complements the trust literature from Social Control of Impersonal Trust where trustees sit between intimate and anonymous. — connects to: Frequent business counterparts resolve disputes privately to protect ongoing relationships