Interorganizational Trust and Technology Complexity: Evidence for New Technology-Based Firms

Integrating the transaction cost economics and relational perspectives, this paper puts forward that technology complexity within new technology-based firms negatively influences the level of interorganizational trust in key partner relationships. Using a data set of 105 key partner relationships of 59 new technology-based firms, we find that the new technology-based firm's level of trust in its key partners is lower when the level of technology complexity is high. Findings further show that both relationship and partner characteristics moderate the technology complexitytrust relationship. These results show that technology complexity as an appropriability mechanism becomes endogenous to collaboration, thereby extending the Teece framework.