REPUTATION AND TRUST OF PRINCIPALS AND AGENTS IN INTERORGANISATIONAL RELATIONS — THE CASE OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH COOPERATION

Abstract

Trust is the most important prerequisite for the emergence and effectiveness of interorganisational innovation cooperation, due to uncertainty and contract incompleteness. Nevertheless, little attention has been paid to the question of whether the trust of principals in a cooperation depends on different preconditions than that of agents. Based on a sample of 364 scientists from 100 German publicly funded interdisciplinary cooperations in medical research, we find that the trust of principals mainly depends on their partners’ reputation of ability, whereas the trust of agents on their partners’ reputation of benevolence. Surprisingly, culture- and personality-related factors prove to be ineffective. These results are of major relevance for the trust generation in innovation cooperation.