Trust in a Product Development Context : Drivers, Dynamics and Consequences

Sammanfattning: To trust is to accept vulnerability. We need trust when we are dependent on others to achieve what we want, but cannot predict with certainty how they will act. Product development represents such a situation. This activity means to deal with profound uncertainty; creating something that has not existed before. In the process, innovators builds on what has gone before and realizes the potential of their ideas with the help of those around them. Trust lies at the heart of this shared journey into the unknown.This thesis provides a dynamic and multi-level investigation into how trust develops in a context of product development and how trust can be repaired after being violated. A key contribution is the illumination of as yet underspecified connections between trust at the group level and the organizational level and the identification of novel mechanisms underlying inter-organizational trust repair. Moreover, the thesis suggests implications of trust for product development management. An important contribution in this area is a deeper understanding of how trust can function as an organizing principle, which enables the simultaneous pursuit of structure and creativity.