A Generic Framework for Trust in the Innovation Process

Trust among agents (or persons) involved in the process of innovation is intrinsic to successful innovation. An examination of the firm’s trust in its agents at various stages of the innovation process will therefore contribute practical insights into best business practices, as well as policy implications for competitive and strategic advancement. This paper focuses on the development of a framework for the evolution of trust in the firm’s innovation process. The trust a firm has in its employees at the micro level, and in the agents who are part of a sectoral, regional and national innovation system consisting of firms (including multi-national corporations or MNCs at both the national and transnational/global levels), academic institutions, and government and non-government bodies with which the firm interacts, is crucial to the firm’s successful innovation. Trust in the process of innovation is viewed as consisting of two components – concerns regarding how firms feel about being trusted and about having to trust others. Three types of trust are identified in the paper, namely, competence, predictability and goodwill trust. These are described in terms of their evolution at different stages of the firm’s innovation process as the firm interacts with its micro, meso and macro level agents. By examining the role of the firm’s trust at these different stages, the paper seeks to contribute to a better understanding of the role of trust in the innovation process