The role of trust in interorganizational learning

Accessing partner's tacit knowledge resources is one of the major advantages that strategic alliances offer to collaborating firms. Sharing of tacit knowledge, however, is risky for organizations, as it constitutes the basis of their competitive advantage. Additionally, due to its unarticulated character, tacit knowledge does not yield itself easily to transfer. This dissertation investigates the impact of trust on learning in an interorganizational context. It uses social learning theory to argue that the extent of trust at the strategic and operational level jointly affects the transfer of tacit knowledge between two organizations, albeit in different ways. Trust at the two levels is argued to be distinct in its sources and outcomes. Hypotheses linking types of trust to processes of tacit knowledge transfer in interorganizational alliances at both the strategic and the operational levels are formulated and tested.