The Power of ‘Both/And’ : Simultaneous Trust and Distrust in Inter-Firm Coopetitive Alliances

Previous research on the association between coopetition—inter-firm relationships that involve the simultaneous interaction of cooperation and competition—and performance has shown inconsistent results. We build on the developing stream of organizational literature that emphasizes the need for both trust and distrust to address this conundrum. By explicitly treating trust and distrust as distinct and multi-dimensional constructs (i.e., trust comprising goodwill and competence dimensions and distrust consisting of malevolence and discredibility), we consider their moderating effects on the coopetition–performance relationship. Our results suggest that while the presence of both trust and distrust positively moderates the relationship between coopetition and performance, the presence of either trust or distrust fails to do so. We contribute by showing the power of ‘both/and’ (against the conventional ‘either/or’) view of trust and distrust in terms of achieving superior, long-run performance in complex relationships like that of coopetition.Paper presented at Track 11: Inter-Organizational Collaboration: Partnerships, Alliances and Networks.