Abstract
Companies increasingly collaborate in their technological activities. Collaboration enables firms to learn about uncertain and turbulent technological change, and enhances their ability to deal with novelty. A number of studies reveal the importance for successful collaboration of high levels of inter-personal trust between scientists, engineers, and managers in the different partners. However, these individual relationships are vulnerable to labor turnover and inter-personal difficulties. Using two examples of highly successful technological collaborations, it is argued that the survival of such relationships in the face of these inevitable inter-personal problems requires the establishment of interorganizational trust. Such trust is characterized by community of interest, organizational cultures receptive to external inputs, and widespread and continually supplemented knowledge among employees of the status and purpose of the collaboration.
Keywords
NoveltyBusinessFace (sociological concept)Knowledge managementTechnological changePublic relationsMarketingPsychologySociologyPolitical scienceSocial psychologyComputer science
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Publication Info
- Year
- 1993
- Type
- article
- Volume
- 46
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 77-95
- Citations
- 566
- Access
- Closed
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Cite This
Mark Dodgson
(1993).
Learning, Trust, and Technological Collaboration.
Human Relations
, 46
(1)
, 77-95.
https://doi.org/10.1177/001872679304600106
Identifiers
- DOI
- 10.1177/001872679304600106