Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/208893 
Year of Publication: 
2014
Series/Report no.: 
PhD Series No. 17.2014
Publisher: 
Copenhagen Business School (CBS), Frederiksberg
Abstract: 
This thesis addresses the need, development and management of trust in Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs), an issue that thus far has received only very little attention. For this purpose, the dissertation contributes with four separate articles, of which the first two explore the main concepts – PPPs and trust – while the last two present the empirical exploration of trusting in PPPs by drawing on four in-depth case studies. The exploration of the PPP concept in the first article focuses on the definitory and classificatory practices across disciplinary and professional fields and contributes with an inductive map of the dominant patterns. The review of PPP publications argues that the main divergence lies in the focus on two differing dimensions. While a first group focuses on PPPs as a new way of distributing responsibilities across public and private partners a second group defines PPPs as a new means for joint decision-making and interactive collaboration between public and private partners. For the thesis it is especially the second dimension – the relational - that becomes relevant when trust moves centre-stage. In the second article, the dissertation addresses trust conceptualizations in an interorganizational setting. The article argues for a more processual approach to (re)embed trust in time and space. Following, the paper develops a processual framework for studying interorganizational trusting as ever evolving, always embedded and not least rooted in individual experiences of organizational members from various organizational levels. Finally, the article highlights the constitutive importance of contingency not only creating the need for trust but also its precondition. It is because we experience the future as open (contingent) that we are in need and able to form trust, i.e. suspend doubts and form positive expectations about another’s future behaviour despite he/she has the possibility for alternative actions.
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
ISBN: 
9788793155350
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by-nc-nd Logo
Document Type: 
Doctoral Thesis

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