Exploring the Role of Trust in Entrepreneurial Activity

Trust is a phenomenon which, over the past decade, has gained attention across many disciplines and fields of study, e.g., psychology, organizational theory, sociology, economic theory, and business management. There is no single comprehensive definition of trust, and even within disciplines several definitions often exist. However, in terms of business behavior, trust is based on a perception of the probability that other agents will behave in a way that is expected (Gambetta, 1988). In addition, there is a danger that academics concerned with different aspects of human behavior may sometimes be guilty of exaggerating the role of trust, which emphasizes the importance of developing robust methodologies to identify and assess it. As Endres (2004, p. 15) stated, “we are confronted with an inflationary use of the concept of trust in several scientific disciplines, while its use in everyday life is much rarer.” Compared with their contemporaries in fields such as management studies, entrepreneurship scholars have only recently started to pay attention to trust-related issues, which may or may not be justified. This special issue aims to contribute to a discussion of the role of trust in the field of entrepreneurship, both conceptually (Goel & Karri, 2006; Zahra, Yavuz, & Ucbasaran, 2006) and empirically (Howorth & Moro, 2006; Neergard & Ulhoi, 2006).

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