How much does trust really matter? Some reflections on the significance and implications of Madhok's trust-based approac
- PDF / 107,424 Bytes
- 9 Pages / 595 x 794 pts Page_size
- 24 Downloads / 214 Views
& 2006 Academy of International Business All rights reserved 0047-2506 $30.00 www.jibs.net
COMMENTARY
How much does trust really matter? Some reflections on the significance and implications of Madhok’s trust-based approach Silviya Svejenova Business Policy Department, ESADE Business School, Barcelona, Spain Correspondence: S Svejenova, Business Policy Department, ESADE Business School, Av. Pedralbes 6062, Barcelona 08034, Spain. Tel: þ 34 669760941; E-mail: [email protected]
Abstract Madhok’s 1995 article defined and developed a trust-based perspective on the stability of international joint ventures (IJVs). Proposing a shift in focus from ownership to relationship, and from governance form to process, the article emphasised the role of trust in holding IJVs together and the importance of considering the dynamics of inter-organisational collaboration. By distinguishing between structural and social components of trust, it contributed to a more nuanced understanding of what makes inter-firm partnership durable and able to realise its value potential. This paper reviews Madhok’s original ideas and highlights the influence they have had on the field of international business. It concludes with avenues for further research inspired by the article. Journal of International Business Studies (2006) 37, 12–20. doi:10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8400181 Keywords: alliances; international joint ventures; ownership; relationship management; trust
Received: 17 October 2005 Accepted: 17 October 2005 Online publication date: 15 December 2005
Introduction It is an honour to provide a commentary to the JIBS 2005 Decade Award-winning article ‘Revisiting Multinational Firms’ Tolerance for Joint Ventures: A Trust-Based Approach’ by Anoop Madhok, a truly international scholar by background, training, spirit and vocation, and a prolific author who has enriched the field of international business (IB). Madhok’s trust-based approach shifted the attention from ownership as a means for multinational companies to control their international ventures to trust as a source of long-term resilience of the partnership. By building a bridge between Stopford and Wells (1972) and Franko’s (1971) mainstream IB theories of ownership and the literature on trust, including earlier work on international joint ventures (IJVs) by Beamish (1985) and Parkhe (1993) among other insights, Madhok changed the discourse in the field of IB. Furthermore, his awardwinning article is a manifestation of a fruitful cross-disciplinary exchange: on the one hand, it brought into IB insights from disciplines such as sociology and anthropology, and on the other hand, it successfully exported IB contributions to other domains, through the universal appeal of the proposed framework. A decade after the article’s publication, both the questions it poses and its integrative approach appear remarkably contemporary. The issue of
Reflections on Madhok’s trust-based approach
Silviya Svejenova
13
what makes alliances persistently popular despite the challenges in achieving r
Data Loading...
