How partners’ knowledge base and complexity are related to innovative project success: The roles of trust and trust capability of partners

Competitive pressures and the need for innovation are shaping strategic partnerships. Participants involved in these partnerships share knowledge, collaborate in project activities, and make joint decisions to achieve complex project objectives. However, achieving effective collaboration in partnerships is challenging due to miscommunication, missing skills, missing resources, and lack of trust. This study develops a conceptual model based on existing literature, to investigate the effect of partners’ knowledge bases, project complexity, and trust between partners on innovation and project success. We analyze the model using a survey of managers of European research projects and Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). Our results show the significant impact of changes in a project itself on its success, and the considerable impact of project complexity and trust on the ability of partners to alter the project itself. We also observe the significant impacts of similarity and complementarity of knowledge on trust between partners, and introduce the issue of whether partners jointly command the knowledge needed to complete the project, showing its importance in determining project success.