Our task is to adopt a multidisciplinary view
of trust within and between firms, in an effort to
synthesize and give insight into a fundamental
construct of organizational science. We seek to
identify the shared understandings of trust
across disciplines, while recognizing that the
divergent meanings scholars bring to the study
of trust also can add value.

Not So Different After All: A Cross-Discipline View Of Trust

Electronic networks of practice are computer-mediated discussion forums focused on problems of practice that enable individuals to exchange advice and ideas with others based on common interests. However, why individuals help strangers in these electronic networks is not well understood: there is no immediate benefit to the contributor, and free-riders are able to acquire the same knowledge as everyone else. To understand this paradox, we apply theories of collective action to examine how individual motivations and social capital influence knowledge contribution in electronic networks. This study reports on the activities of one electronic network supporting a professional legal association. Using archival, network, survey, and content analysis data, we empirically test a model of knowledge contribution. We find that people contribute their knowledge when they perceive that it enhances their professional reputations, when they have the experience to share, and when they are structurally embedded in the network. Surprisingly, contributions occur without regard to expectations of reciprocity from others or high levels of commitment to the network.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/25148667.pdf

Why should i share? examining social capital and knowledge contribution in electronic networks of practice

The paper is concerned with spatial clustering of economic activity and its relation to the spatiality of knowledge creation in interactive learning processes. It questions the view that tacit knowledge transfer is confined to local milieus whereas codified knowledge may roam the globe almost frictionlessly. The paper highlights the conditions under which both tacit and codified knowledge can be exchanged locally and globally. A distinction is made between, on the one hand, the learning processes taking place among actors embedded in a community by just being there dubbed buzz and, on the other, the knowledge attained by investing in building channels of communication called pipelines to selected providers located outside the local milieu. It is argued that the co-existence of high levels of buzz and many pipelines may provide firms located in outward-looking and lively clusters with a string of particular advantages not available to outsiders. Finally, some policy implications, stemming from this argumen...

/pdf/clusters-and-knowledge-local-buzz-global-pipelines-and-the-29bsuyvekg.pdf

Clusters and knowledge: local buzz, global pipelines and the process of knowledge creation

The authors develop a framework for understanding the behaviors and practices of service providers that build or deplete consumer trust and the mechanisms that convert consumer trust into value and loyalty in relational exchanges. The proposed framework (1) uses a multidimensional conceptualization for the trustworthiness construct; (2) incorporates two distinct facets of consumer trust, namely, frontline employees and management policies and practices; and (3) specifies value as a key mediator of the trust–loyalty relationship. The authors test the proposed model using data from two service contexts—retail clothing (N = 264) and nonbusiness airline travel (N = 113). The results support a tripartite view of trustworthiness evaluations along operational competence, operational benevolence, and problem-solving orientation dimensions. Moreover, the authors find evidence of contingent asymmetric relationships between trustworthiness dimensions and consumer trust. For frontline employees, benevolent b...

Consumer Trust, Value, and Loyalty in Relational Exchanges:

Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity

In transaction cost economics, trust has been treated as redundant or even misleading. This study tested the effects of governance and trust on the risk perceived by agents of firms in alliances. T...

/pdf/effects-of-trust-and-governance-on-relational-risk-1f5sx5f6ed.pdf

Effects of Trust and Governance on Relational Risk

1. Purpose and Scope PART I: BUILDING-BLOCKS 2. Management and Organization 3. Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Competence 4. Evolution 5. Institutions 6. Knowledge 7. Language PART II: CONSTRUCTION 8. A Theory of Interactive Learning 9. A Heuristic of Discovery 10. An Elaboration with Scripts 11. Integration and Disintegration PART III: APPLICATION 12. Innovation Systems 13. Organizational Learning 14. Conclusions and Further Research 15. Summary

Learning and innovation in organizations and economies

Optimal cognitive distance and absorptive capacity

This chapter reviews the empirical results of this study. Section 6.2 presents an international comparison of long-term supply relationships between the United States, Japan and Europe. The empirical evidence indicates that there are strong similarities between the three regions. We do find differences but these differences seem small, particularly relative to the expectations one may have on the basis of received view on systemic differences between “Japanese” and “Western” contracting. Thus, if indeed there were large differences between the Triad’s regions, there now appears to be considerable convergence towards a common underlying logic’ of long-term supply relationships. However, the underlying causal structures have not completely converged into one overall system, and section 6.3 discusses this. Despite all similarities, our results also show remaining differences between the regions. Each of the differences by itself do not explain much; however, when connecting the differences they provide new insights. Section 6.3 concludes that in the US perhaps a “Third Way” has been found. Section 6.4 presents an interpretation of the results. Our empirical results confirm the interactive nature of firm- and relation-specific characteristics. As we conclude, the interactions hint at a dynamic process and we identify various causal loops. These causal loops may lie at the heart of the working of long-term supply relationships. Section 6.5 presents a final review of this study. Among others, it provides several arguments beyond this study that may explain the strong similarities between the Triad’s regions.

An International Comparison

The article provides an inventory of the strengths and weaknesses of small firms in a dynamic context. To do this it considers verbal accounts of the processes of innovation and diffusion, as well as quantitative studies testing cause-effect relations. It consider both economic and noneconomic factors, concerning issues of motivation, perception and knowledge. First an overall summary is given of the characteristics of small business compared with large business, as a basis for an assessment of strengths and weaknesses. Perhaps the most important characteristic of small business is its diversity, and the article gives the conditions and sources of it. Other core characteristics are small scale, personality and independence of the small firm. From these, derived characteristics, strengths and weaknesses and core strategies can be inferred. From the perspective of the firm, strengths and weaknesses are subsequently analysed for the successive stages of innovation: invention, development, tooling/production, introduction to practice/market. Strengths and weaknesses in diffusion are analysed for the successive stages in the adoption process, as proposed by Rogers. Reference is made to theory and to empirical studies from the literature and from research by the present author.

Bart Nooteboom

Papers

Effects of Trust and Governance on Relational Risk

Learning and innovation in organizations and economies

Optimal cognitive distance and absorptive capacity

An International Comparison

Innovation and diffusion in small firms: Theory and evidence