Revisiting the Trust-performance Link in Strategic Alliances

•We extend research on the trust-performance link in strategic alliances (SAs) by arguing that the traditional focus of research on the influence of trust on performance of SAs needs to be complemented with a more explicit acknowledgment and analysis of the role that SA performance plays in the development of trust.
•Drawing on existing theoretical arguments and empirical findings related to the consequences and determinants of trust we argue for the existence of a bidirectional causal relationship between trust and performance in SAs. We empirically test this bilateral relationship using 3-stage least square regression models on data from 110 strategic alliances.
•Our results support the positive effect of SA performance on trust, but not the commonly stressed positive effect of trust on SA performance. We discuss the relevance of this finding for the theory of inter-firm collaboration. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for practitioners and scholars interested in SAs.