Dries Faems

From Trust Convergence to Trust Divergence: Trust Development in Conflictual Interorganizational Relationships

Whereas extant research on trust in interorganizational relationships tends to focus on trust convergence – i.e. members of one focal firm developing similar trust perceptions toward a partner firm – we shift focus to trust divergence – i.e. members of one focal firm developing different trust perceptions toward a partner firm. To explore trust divergence, we conduct an inductive, longitudinal study of one interorganizational relationship characterized by mutual transgressions. We identify shifts in attentional perspectives and referent categorizations as two novel mechanisms for theorizing trust development in interorganizational relationships. In particular, we develop a process model illuminating how these two mechanisms can contribute to trust development patterns in interorganizational relationships that are more discontinuous than existing models would predict. Moreover, we highlight the constructive implications of trust divergence for interorganizational collaboration in the presence of transgression and conflict.

Multistep Knowledge Transfer in Multinational Corporation Networks: When Do Subsidiaries Benefit From Unconnected Sister Alliances?

In this paper, we explore under which conditions subsidiaries of multinational corporations can benefit from the external networks of sister subsidiaries in terms of new knowledge generation. We focus on the phenomenon of unconnected sister alliances—that is, alliances of sister subsidiaries with whom the focal subsidiary lacks a recent history of internal R&D collaboration. Whereas unconnected sister alliances provide knowledge recombination opportunities for the focal subsidiary, realizing them is challenging because of particular knowledge transfer frictions. In this paper, we theorize on how particular conditions (i.e., headquarters proximity, knowledge overlap, size of focal subsidiary’s own alliance network) influence the strength of these frictions, resulting in hypotheses on how these conditions moderate the relationship between the number of unconnected sister alliances and the generation of new knowledge by focal subsidiaries. We rely on a panel data set of 2,258 R&D subsidiaries belonging to 118 firms in the pharmaceutical industry to empirically test our hypotheses. Jointly, our findings enrich our current theoretical understanding of how different types of external linkages and their interactions shape subsidiaries’ generation of new knowledge. We also illuminate the opportunities and challenges that multistep knowledge transfer processes entail.

Can Large Firms Really Leverage Radical Innovation? In Search of New Dimensions and Strategies

Emerging trends in the digitization of product and services, the increased relevance of distributed and combinatory innovation as well as the sharing (collaborative) economy are urging the need for...

Only Time Will Tell? Recombinant Lag and the Technological Value of Inventions

Focusing on the temporal dimension of knowledge recombination, studies examine the extent to which the age of components influences the value of inventions. However, this research neglects that components vary substantially in terms of when they were last used. To address this gap, we introduce the concept of recombinant lag, i.e. the time that components in knowledge recombination have remained unused, and test its impact on the technological value of inventions. We predict that components that remain unused for longer periods become less technologically relevant and more difficult to retrieve. However, we also expect that, beyond a certain point, the uniqueness and untapped recombinant potential of components that remain unused for longer periods to outweigh these two disadvantages. Analyzing 20,906 fuel cell patent families, we find that the recombinant lag of components used in knowledge recombination has a U-shaped relationship with the technological value of resulting inventions. Our findings contri...