Title: Balancing trust and knowledge protection in inter-organisational product design collaboration

Authors: Diana Volz; Brigitte Petendra; Christian Schilcher; Reiner Anderl

Addresses: Department of Computer Integrated Design, Technische Universitat Darmstadt, Petersenstr. 30, D-64287 Darmstadt, Germany. ' Department of Sociology, Technische Universitat Darmstadt, Germany. ' Department of Sociology, Technische Universitat Darmstadt, Germany. ' Department of Computer Integrated Design, Technische Universitat Darmstadt, Germany

Abstract: Apart from rules, regulations and technical support to protect crucial product design information and knowledge, trust can be a decisive factor for the success or failure of interorganisational product development cooperation. This paper shows the correlation between knowledge protection and trust. Product development cooperation|s success depends on information sharing in between the team. Hence, the question concerning the level of knowledge protection is usually a question about the level of trust, too. Finally, the level of trust should then be included into existing product development methods to balance teams; trust in cooperation and to protect development data from misuse.

Keywords: inter-organisational collaboration; product design; trust; knowledge protection; product information; collaborative design; product development.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPD.2011.043662

International Journal of Product Development, 2011 Vol.15 No.1/2/3, pp.71 - 89

Published online: 27 Feb 2015 *

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