Building Trust in Global Inter-Organizational Software Development Projects: Problems and Practices

This paper explores problems and potential practices for trust building in global inter-organizational software development networks. The concept and traditional sources of trust are briefly reviewed, and the special problems on trust building in networks are analyzed on the basis of the theoretical framework. Our empirical findings from nine global software development networks show that such networks are facing problems because the traditional sources of trust do not exist in networked con-ditions. In such networks, trust may emerge occasionally, but maintaining it seems especially challenging. Conse-quently, building and maintaining trust in globally and organizationally dispersed networks seems to require supportive practices that compensate the deficient sources of trust. On the basis of our empirical data, some successful practices in trust building are outlined. 1