All you need is trust? A critical review of the trust and entrepreneurship literature

Abstract

This article critically reviews the literature pertaining to trust and entrepreneurship, highlighting the diversity and complexity of this construct. In addition, the interdependency of trust with context, as well as its dual nature in relation to control and as a sanctioning mechanism, is explored. Trust can be both a dispositional and a behavioural outcome; ‘genuine’ (personal) trust, sanctions and control coexist and co-evolve within and across different contexts. Trust influences entrepreneurship, not always positively, but entrepreneurial behaviour also has an impact on levels of personal and institutional trust. Future studies of trust and entrepreneurship need to acknowledge the bright and dark sides of trust, its duality and the different contexts in which it occurs. Ultimately, we need to develop a far more critical analysis of the importance and role of trust in the context of entrepreneurship.