The Level of Trust in Innovative Enterprises – Measurement and Analysis

Abstract

The fact that the problem of trust inside and between organizations as well as on the macro scale is becoming more and more important shows that it is a crucial element of management. A selection of the optimal solution requires having absolute trust in the other party. Trust underlies all business relations in the days of modern technology which facilitate an activity in the geographic space without limits. The research points to the relation between an enterprise's results, its innovation and competitiveness and the level of corporate trust. This article presents the measurement and analysis of trust in a group of 262 respondents. Eighteen innovative enterprises of different size were selected to do the research. The purpose of the paper was to measure the level of trust in three dimensions in given enterprises. The following dimensions of trust inside organizations were taken into account: institutional, vertical and horizontal trust. It was assumed that the entities under examination should be characterized by a high level of trust especially in vertical and horizontal dimension because of being innovative enterprises. It has been established so far that the trust in relations between a superior and supervisor plays a significant role for creating innovations. Since innovations are most frequently the result of team work, horizontal trust seems to be an important factor in their creation. Different aspects of trust depending on the respondent's particulars and a represented company were also analyzed.