Inter-organizational trust as a statement of social proximity

Abstract

Bearing in mind the important role of trust in the creati on and development of networks, including clusters, the main purpose of the paper was to assess the level of trust of the surveyed enterprises to competi tors and cooperators, as well as to identi fy factors, which have an impact on the trust level. The text presents the results of the research collected in 317 Polish enterprises operati ng in four industries: constructi on, food, metal, and machinery, as well as wood and furniture. The basic method of data collecti on was a survey. The respondents in the study were only representati ves of the management or owners of enterprises qualifi ed for the study, possessing knowledge about interorganizati onal cooperati on, the so-called key informants. The results presented in the text indicated low trust among both competi ti ve and cooperati ng enterprises. The presented results do not inspire opti mism in the scope of possibiliti es of creati ng and developing other network connecti ons beside clusters. The defi cit of Polish enterprises in terms of trust in other companies that are not even their competi tors will limit not only their ability to establish cooperati on with domesti c but also foreign companies. The considerati ons carried out in the text contribute to bett er recogniti on of interorganizati onal trust issues in the context of networking, including clusters. Sti ll, they are not free from certain restricti ons, which result, in parti cular, from the methodological approach used and, primarily, from the inability to generalize the results. Therefore, an additi onal directi on of further scienti fi c research may be to undertake replicati on studies carried out on a representati ve sample. Interesti ng research topics also include conducti ng similar research not only in Poland but also in other countries, both similar and completely diff erent from Poland. They would allow a bett er recogniti on and understanding of the impact of culture and context on building trust. It may also be interesti ng to identi fy universal contextual factors aff ecti ng trust and their impact on changes in the meaning and intensity of trust.

Examining Cognitive and Social Proximities’ Influence on Cluster Firms’ Green Technological Innovation

“…To unleash the innovation potential of clusters, firms must cooperate with all participants, including competitors, with an open attitude (Wasiluk & Saadatyar, 2020). Numerous scholars believe that different dimensions of proximity are essential for GTI (Hansen, 2014; Liu et al, 2021; Seuring & Müller, 2008; Shaw & Gilly, 2000).…”

“…Social proximity enables cluster firms to spend more resources on knowledge sharing related to GTI rather than expending resources to understand the behavior of partners and worry regarding the risks associated with knowledge sharing. Further, social proximity affects the transmission of tacit knowledge (Wasiluk & Saadatyar, 2020). Tacit knowledge may be more critical to GTI than explicit knowledge.…”

“…However, firms in clusters face difficulties implementing GTI. GTI implementation indicates that cooperation and knowledge interaction between firms in the cluster and innovation network entities are weak, and opportunistic behavior appears relatively easily (Jakimowicz & Rzeczkowski, 2019; Wasiluk & Saadatyar, 2020). When firms in a cluster engage in knowledge interaction and technological innovation cooperation with external firms, the cognitive and management barriers cannot be underestimated (Ardito et al, 2018; Asakawa, 2001), which may impair the GTI of firms in the cluster.…”

A Proximity Approach to Understanding University-Industry Collaborations for Innovation in Non-Local Context: Exploring the Catch-Up Role of Regional Absorptive Capacity

“…The second is the closeness of the collaborative relationship [18], usually measured by the number of existing cooperative relationships. Building trust, sharing again and more partners will increase the possibility of cooperation [9]. This study selects U-I collaborative entities with experience in collaboration as the sample.…”

“…Scholars interest in proceeding on the knowledge spillovers of U-I collaborations to spur regional development [6][7][8]. Knowledge is a concept of social embedded-whether it is rooted in specific environments or constituted by these environments-implies that the boundaries between context are indispensable for understanding the flow of knowledge [9]. The regional edge as the externality is rooted in the correlation between knowledge production and the overall level of economic activities and is more significant than the barriers such as organizational structure, goals, and culture on the scale of cities or regions [10].…”