Special Issue on Trust and Control: Sparring Partners or a Winning Team?:

TLDR: In this paper, the authors take the matter of how trust and control are related one step further by bringing together empirical studies of intra-and inter-organizational relations and highlight the importance of theoretically innovative and empirically rigorous research on the relationship between these two constructs.

Abstract: In the past decades, scholarly thinking about governance of intraand interorganizational relations has been shifting from an almost myopic focus on control to recognize trust as an alternative mechanism that especially in situations of high risk proves its worth. Developments such as globalization, the virtualization of work relationships, the growing importance of intangible resources exploration and development, and value-creation have curbed the effectiveness of control-based forms of governance in favor of trust-based forms. Recent research has demonstrated that trust brings important benefits for individuals, teams, and organizations. By now, trust and control are commonly accepted as the most important means to deal with perceived risks in intraand inter-organizational relations. The relationship between trust and control, however, is complex, and research has given rise to various and contradictory interpretations of how these concepts relate. A well-known discussion is directed at whether trust and control are better conceived of as substitutes or as complementary mechanisms of governance. The aim of this special issue is to take the matter of how trust and control are related one step further by bringing together empirical studies of intraand inter-organizational relations. To highlight the importance of theoretically innovative and empirically rigorous research on the relationship between these two constructs, this special issue will consider papers that address relevant topics regarding this relationship, such as: