TY - JOUR

T1 - Trust-Based Cooperation Relationships between SMEs

T2 - Are Family Firms any different?

AU - Fink, Matthias

PY - 2010

Y1 - 2010

N2 - In current business literature, it has been shown in diverse contexts that committing oneself to maxims based on trust put in one's cooperation partner constitutes a successful entrepreneurial action. Against the backdrop of the growing interest in family firms, it seems worthwhile to ask whether or not this also holds true for this special group of firms. After a short introduction and a brief outline of the theoretical background of the effect of maxim-based trust on firm performance, we discuss the particularities of cooperation relationships of family firms and develop an argumentation on how these special characteristics might strengthen or weaken the performance contribution of maxim-based trust which results in the formulation of two hypotheses. A set of linear regression models and a Mann-Whitney U-test show that maxim-based trust significantly contributes to the performance of cooperating SME in Finland (n= 377), but no significant differences in this effect were detected between non-family firms and family firms. Thus, we can encourage family firms to engage in trust-based cooperation relationships, as this is obviously also an attractive strategy to enhance the performance in family firms.

AB - In current business literature, it has been shown in diverse contexts that committing oneself to maxims based on trust put in one's cooperation partner constitutes a successful entrepreneurial action. Against the backdrop of the growing interest in family firms, it seems worthwhile to ask whether or not this also holds true for this special group of firms. After a short introduction and a brief outline of the theoretical background of the effect of maxim-based trust on firm performance, we discuss the particularities of cooperation relationships of family firms and develop an argumentation on how these special characteristics might strengthen or weaken the performance contribution of maxim-based trust which results in the formulation of two hypotheses. A set of linear regression models and a Mann-Whitney U-test show that maxim-based trust significantly contributes to the performance of cooperating SME in Finland (n= 377), but no significant differences in this effect were detected between non-family firms and family firms. Thus, we can encourage family firms to engage in trust-based cooperation relationships, as this is obviously also an attractive strategy to enhance the performance in family firms.

KW - Entrepreneurship

KW - inter-firm cooperation

KW - Maxim-based Trust

KW - firm performance

KW - Family business

KW - comparision

KW - family firms

KW - cooperation relationship

KW - SMEs

KW - small and medium sized enterprise

U2 - 10.1504/IJEV.2010.032539

DO - 10.1504/IJEV.2010.032539

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 1

SP - 382

EP - 397

JO - International Journal of Entrepreneurial Venturing

JF - International Journal of Entrepreneurial Venturing

SN - 1742-5360

IS - 4

ER -