Trust-building in international business ventures
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate collaboration and coordination practices in the organisation whose members come from two countries that differ dramatically in generalised trust: Poland and the USA.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative field study conducted in Silicon Valley-based American-Polish start-up joint venture.
Findings
There are three mechanisms can facilitate collaboration in organisations that differ in generalised trust: frequent interaction that may form a basis for knowledge-based trust, professional cultures that provide common platform for communication, and presence of intermediaries that possess understanding and ability to communicate of both cultures.
Practical implications
The findings can be applied in the context of offshoring projects in knowledge intensive industries.
Originality/value
Research presented in this paper investigates collaboration of parties from low-trust and high-trust cultures within one business venture.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This research is a part of research project “Sources of social capital in management practices within organizations” run by Kozminski University and funded by Polish National Centre for Research and Development.
Citation
Gerbasi, A. and Latusek, D. (2015), "Trust-building in international business ventures", Baltic Journal of Management, Vol. 10 No. 1, pp. 30-51. https://doi.org/10.1108/BJM-04-2013-0056
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited