Trust and Collaboration in Interorganizational Information Technology Projects in the Public Sector

This paper presents a model of a reinforcing feedback structure that clarifies the role of project collaboration in a project for the development of trust. The feedback structure is grounded in data derived from a project where a prototype system was built, and is consistent with the literature on trust, collaboration and diffusion of innovation. Four feedback processes are identified at the core of the development of trust and collaboration, two of them reinforcing in nature, and two of them counterbalancing in nature. Experiments with the model suggest that the initiation of a collaborative project with a new partner may have a potentially slow start due to lack of knowledge about the other parties. Initiation of the collaboration could be accelerated by shaping expectations of benefits or by reducing the perception of risk associated-with the project.