Trust Risk and Control in the Management of Collaborative Technology Development

The technology management literature has recently started to show more interest in trust as a precondition and facilitator for collaborative research and technology development (Das & Teng, 1998; Dodgson, 1993). This renewed interest in trust in the social sciences should inspire research interest in the benefits of collaborative research and development in the technology management literature. There is a danger, however, that the risks of such collaborations may be underestimated. This paper sets out to explore the relationship between risk, trust and control in relation to the risk of information leakage. We identify a strong link between successful cooperative learning, trust and risk as well as the autonomy of individuals working in collaborative projects. We concentrate on the risk of information leakage and analyse this risk and its relationship with trust, and legal and bureaucratic control mechanisms for different technology development strategies and activities, which we group along an "inward/outward-looking" axis. The more "outward-looking" the technology development strategy, the less effective the legal control instruments and the more important the "social" control mechanisms, such as reputation, become. At the same time, higher levels of mutual trust have to be developed.