The Role of ICT in Creation and Sustenance of Trust in SME Clusters and Inter-organizational Systems

Abstract

Research has shown that it is through clustering and interorganizational relationships that SMEs can be innovative, therefore creating development opportunities. Literature stresses that the success of these clusters and inter-organizational systems can be traced to the system of social and economic relationships based on trust among other factors. It is therefore a great concern for researchers to define processes that would enhance and contribute to trust. On the other hand research has shown that ICT and networked computing provide geographical clusters and interorganizational systems with new development opportunities, drawing new possible trajectories of evolution. One specific area where ICT provides new development opportunities is by reinforcing intra-cluster and inter-organizational relationships. Many social scientists have been skeptical about the contribution of ICT towards trust arguing that trust is only built where people have face-face communication, have demographic similarity, have prior history of relationship and are co-located. However it has been noted that Interorganizational systems exist that are enabled by ICT, they are located at different physical locations and have no prior relationships. These in itself creates a gap for researchers to be able to explain the existence of such relationships. By considering different dimensions of trust this paper posits that ICT contributes to creation and sustenance of trust, which is a key component for the success of inter-organizational systems. The paper seeks to provide a framework upon which ICT is analytically evaluated for its contribution towards creation and sustenance of trust