ESMT

     

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ESMT
Berlin, BE, 10178
Germany
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Demographic Information

Number of full-time MBA students (2011): 

39

Number of part-time MBA students (2011): 

0

Total duration of full-time MBA program: 

12 months

MBA faculty (Fall 2010): 

49

Females as percent of student body: 

29%
Who Are the Students? See what percentage of the 2010-2011 graduating class came to this MBA program from the private sector, the non-profit sector and government jobs
 
Private Sector (91%)
 
Non-profit (6%)
 
Government (3%)


Description of MBA Program: 

ESMT European School of Management and Technology is an international business school based in the heart of Europe in Berlin.


The School was founded in 2002 by 25 leading global companies and institutions to develop entrepreneurial leaders, who think globally, act responsibly and respect the individual.


ESMT's 31 faculty members come from 20 nations (as of January 2011) and have a wide variety of professional and academic backgrounds. ESMT is ranked by the Financial Times among the top 10 in Europe and  21st worldwide for its executive education programs.


Responsible leadership and behavior is built into the school's DNA, represented by its mission statement: ESMT develops entrepreneurial leaders who think globally, act responsibly and respect the individual. The school's MBA program opens with a six-week long discussion module on the context of the general manager, in which issues such as the role of business in society, business ethics and leadership challenges in management are introduced. These themes are followed through in each class during the program. MBA participants can choose from two tracks, the first focusing on the technology management and inovation, the second on global sustainable business.


With a heritage rooted in European values and the potential of technology, ESMT develops and imparts new knowledge to foster sustainable economic growth. With events such as the ESMT Annual Forum, and open talks such as the Climate Lunch, initiated together with BDI (German Industry Federation), and WWF (World Wide Fund For Nature), ESMT provides an international platform for dialogue and exchange about corporate responsibility, responsible leadership, and sustainability.


In 2009, the E.ON Chair in Corporate Responsibility was inaugurated. In the MBA curriculum, CR topics are integrated from the beginning of the one-year Full-time and the 21-month Executive MBA program, e.g., field trips to developing countries, 360-degree feedback sessions, modules on governance, business, and sustainability as well as responsible leadership.


ESMT has pooled experts combining academic knowledge with capabilities to teach and consult. Corporate responsibility and sustainability classes are integrated in all of ESMT’s programs. The key benefits of CR and sustainability programs at ESMT are to understand not only the latest research but to provide key examples of it in cases, thus enabling its transfer into the every day life of participants.
 



How does the MBA program 'walk the talk' of social and environmental impact?: 

ESMT has implemented an innovative water recovery system to allow all rainwater on the campus roofs to be recycled directly into the city's river systems. The school is fully recycling compliant with Germany's strict recycling laws.


In addition to and alongside student-driven initiatives, teams of staff from the degree programs and Executive Education are involved in inititatives which have social impact, such as hosting local high schools for professional guidance workshops, and opening the doors of the campus to educate the local Berlin population on business in general. Staff members are also paid-up members of the school's Social Impact Club.

Academic Department

Course Name: Becoming a Responsible Leader
Instructor: Andreas Bernhardt

The idea behind this course is that future executives need to understand that in the chaotic and ever-changing world, a responsible leader needs a strong sense of purpose, conviction, and robust values to guide their everyday behavior. At the same time she or he needs to be flexible in the approaches the organization takes in tackling everyday challenges. To date in the MBA program, participants have been exposed to the fundamentals of management and tools necessary for understanding strategy, organization, and implementation. This course takes the students beyond the tools and techniques of business and makes them think about their own role in organizations and societies. We also look at the leader’s responsibility for their personal lives and careers. This course gives participants a chance to evaluate their own leadership philosophies and to discuss and reflect upon them with their peers. The Module provides various lenses for such an analysis: from personal reflections to work with faculty and experimenting with leadership tools and methods. On a skills side, the course also provides participants with the human interaction competencies that are necessary for successful handling of situations that involve people in work and non-work life.

Course Name: Brands of the Future
Instructor: Francine Espinoza

The objective of this course is to provide students with the skills and knowledge necessary for identifying, analyzing, and solving marketing problems in an international context. It focuses on topics related to global consumer behavior and global branding in a variety of social and cultural contexts. The goal of this course is to open managers’ eyes for less obvious global consumers’ differences and how these differences in consumer behavior may affect not only the success of the brand, but also of the business in different cultures and societies.

The course begins with a discussion of the effects of globalization in society, especially its effect on the individual as a consumer. It uses cases analyzing a variety of industries and geographic regions to gain knowledge about how global companies expand their businesses into new cultures.

Course Name: Business and Sustainability
Instructor: Francisco Székely

The course develops awareness of sustainability and approaches in incorporating sustainability efforts into corporate strategies. It seeks to develop managers who can incorporate environmental, social, and economic sustainability concerns into business management. The course covers aspects of environmental risk management, agribusiness and water scarcity, climate change and business approaches to the issue, alternative energy, and sustainable supply chain management. The course uses case studies on a Mitsubishi Plant near a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Mexico, the CSR efforts of Novartis (a global healthcare company), BP’s green strategies, greenhouse gas emissions management at an Irish electric utility firm, and sustainable supply chain management within Illycafé.

Course Name: Commercialization of Higher Needs
Instructor: Luc Wathieu

The course looks at new products tailored for advanced economies, and includes sessions on business models that cater to customers who are sensitive to social causes. The case in question focuses on the (Red) brand, and outlines to students how ethically-minded consumers react to business models tailored for their concerns and interests.

Course Name: Context of General Management
Instructor: Zoltán Antal-Mokos, CB Bhattacharya, Urs Müller, Konstantin Korotov

The course introduces students to some of the complexities that general managers face in their role of running businesses, managing organizations, and leading people to create value for all stakeholders, including owners, employees, customers, and society at large. It aims to create awareness of the context and purpose of managerial action. The session topics begin with an overview of the responsibility of leadership, then continue with a discussion about how business practices influence society and group behavior. It then finishes with a series of sessions on business ethics, and asks the students to work in intercultural groups on an applied ethics case in a given (ethically questionable) industry or business sector.

Course Name: Corporate Environmental Strategy
Instructor: Zoltán Antal-Mokos

Students discuss different methods of corporate strategy and governance that keeps in mind considerations of the environment and society as a whole. Consideration is given not only to traditional environmental issues (land and water purification, endangered species, etc.) but also to new and developing issues in the field, such as the impact of the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples on the businesses operating within countries with an indigenous population. Marketing issues are also covered, such as green market segmentation and green consumer behavior.

Course Name: Corporate Strategy
Instructor: Zoltán Antal-Mokos

In this course students analyze the scope and governance of an entire organization and its direction in a changing, competitive, globalizing world. Students are actively challenged to consider and question the nature and role of corporate-level management, regarding the ethical, environmental, and societal effects of an organization. First, the course aims at a better understanding of why firms do things the way they do. Second, it develops an action-oriented perspective for managers in the realm of corporate strategy so that to ensure viability and success of their organizations and for the society in which they operate. The course finishes with a discussion of how corporations develop a responsible strategy with the general public in mind.

Course Name: Driving Marketing Decisions from the Data
Instructor: Vishal Singh

The general objective of this course is to provide managers with the basic tools and techniques that can be utilized for making responsible marketing decisions. The emphasis of the course will be on applications and interpretation of data results for use in making real life marketing decisions. We will focus less on the mathematical and statistical properties of the techniques used to produce these results. Emphasis will be given to quantitative aspects of marketing decision making and how they help managers in addressing substantive marketing problems such as market segmentation, estimating market potential and forecasting demand, developing optimal pricing policies, and designing and positioning new products. In addition the course addresses emerging areas such as the role of corporate social responsibility, customer relationship management (CRM), and the ethics of consumer privacy issues.

Course Name: Entrepreneurship
Instructor: Benoit Leleux

The course covers the management issues arising from business in high-growth start-up companies. The professor covers business planning and basic business models, and then devotes significant time to business development opportunities for social empowerment and in developing countries. Sessions deal with eco-business opportunities, socially responsible clothing, women’s empowerment through entrepreneur initiatives, and entrepreneurship in emerging markets. Students also gain exposure to social entrepreneurship initiatives in Africa and South America.

Course Name: Fighting Poverty with Business
Instructor: Raji Jayaraman

The course introduces business students to the basics of development economics and then builds upon the knowledge to discuss different approaches to alleviate poverty in developing countries. It focuses on the causes of under-development, confronting institutional gaps in developing countries, financial sustainability in developing countries, social challenges, and poverty alleviation practices. Students discuss governmental institutions and business organization through cases on Botswana and Rwanda. Alternative health care practices are seen through a case on the Aravind Eye Hospital in India. Educating poor children in developing countries is addressed through a case on the One Child per Laptop ($100 laptop) program. The course covers business models targeting global hunger, and devotes significant time to microcredit and microfinance models in India and South America. Finally, the last classes cover issues of corruption and methods of confronting it. In addition, students work in groups on to develop a new product or service that will solve development issues in an assigned country.

Pages

Type of Offering

Annual Forum 2010 – People, Planet, Profit: Creating a Sustainable Future
Date: June, 2010

On June 16-17, 2010, ESMT welcomed more than 300 guests and prominent thought leaders from international business, politics, and academia to its 3rd Annual Forum. The interdisciplinary platform inspired high-level debate and rich discussion; the three pillars for sustainable organizational and economic prosperity - people, planet, and profit - represent the triple bottom line challenging today's leaders.

Emphasizing its continued dedication to drive leadership excellence, ESMT honored Infosys founder and chief mentor N.R. Narayana Murthy with the inaugural "ESMT Responsible Leadership Award," for his deep commitment to the principles of sustainability, and his inspirational business conduct.

Open Lecture – Sunil Khilnani (Johns Hopkins University)
Date: April, 2010

Some of the developments energizing India’s young imaginations are the very material for future social conflicts—conflicts that range from the control of, and access to, increasingly scarce environmental resources, to managing the effects of divergent rates of regional growth. Sunil Khilnani started his argument with India’s recent, uneven growth, and the ways in which GDP and other aggregate figures disguise as much as they reveal.

Master Class – Georg Knoth
Date: June, 2010

Georg Knoth, CEO GE Germany, Austria, Switzerland talked about GE’s ecomagination program as a game changer for GE and as a driver of innovation.

Guest Speaker BASF
Date: May, 2010

Dr. Walter Seufert (BASF President Region Europe) discussed BASF's sustainability vision and the company's eco-efficiency tools with MBA students.

Climate Lunch – Energy Efficiency in Buildings
Date: October, 2010

At the third event in the Climate Lunch series, ESMT welcomed representatives from industry, politics and conservation organizations to discuss energy efficiency in buildings. First Christoph Burger, faculty member, ESMT; Regine Günther, head of climate protection and energy policy, WWF, and Dr. Kurt-Christian Scheel, head of climate and sustainable development, BDI, gave introductory speeches covering the varying points of view on the topic.

Climate Lunch – Low Carbon Economy
Date: April, 2010

In April, ESMT hosted the first climate lunch in cooperation with WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) and BDI (Bundesverband der deutschen Industrie) initiative Business for Climate Protection focusing on the structures we need on our way towards a low carbon economy while competing in a global economy. The speakers were Regine Günther, head of climate protection and energy policy, WWF; Carsten Rolle, head of energy and natural resources, BDI; Christoph Burger, faculty member, ESMT. For the panel discussion, the presenters were joined by Hans-Peter Boehm, vice president government affairs, Siemens AG, and Bernd-Michael Zinow, head economy and politics, EnBW. The event was moderated by Gerhard Irmler of Deutschlandradio.

Master Class – Dr. Marijn Dekkers
Date: August, 2010

Dr. Marijn Dekkers, Chairman of the Board of Management of Bayer AG discussed with students about fair management compensation and trade-offs between short-term profits and ethical issues such as CSR and sustainability.

Master Class – Dr. Frank Appel
Date: September, 2010

Dr. Frank Appel, CEO of Deutsche Post AG explained his understanding of sustainable business to the MBA students and discussed Deutsche Post’s CSR initiative “GoTeach.”

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Climate Lunch – Conceptes for the Mobility of the Future
Date: June, 2010

For the second time ESMT welcomed representatives from industry, politics and conservation organisations to the climate lunch series. This time with the title "Concepts for the Mobility of the Future. Opportunities and Limits of Electro Mobility."

Open Lecture – Neither Fish nor Flesh
Date: November, 2010

Louise O. Fresco’s (University of Amsterdam) presentation “Neither fish nor flesh” took the audience of around 60 from ethnological to historical and then to traditional reasons for today’s nutrition. People have always eaten flesh. But do we really need as much meat as we consume in our western world today? Or would a little less do? Religions have always applied rules on the consumption of food, but never has there been a time in which food was more readily available than today. So Louise Fresco encouraged the audience to limit food consumption a little and to be aware of the implications of food production.

The moderator Claudius Seidl, Chief Editor of the Feuilleton of Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, led the audience through the vast variety of topics in the discussion that succeeded the presentation.

Open Lecture – Avinash D. Persaud
Date: September, 2010

Avinash D. Persaud argues, if crises keep repeating themselves, it seems reasonable for policy makers to carefully consider what they are doing and not just react to the specific features of a current situation. Since we are dealing with systemic risks, he maintains, we require a different set of tools than micro-focused reform ideas which currently dominate the public. The solution to the crisis, according to Persaud, is not more regulation but better regulation – in particular, more macro-prudential regulation.

Open Lecture – Jeremy Rifkin
Date: February, 2010

In this ESMT Open Lecture Jeremy Rifkin claimed that we are currently at a pivotal turning point for our species. If there is a way for our human race to decide the current ecological and industrial endgame in our favor, then we need to adjust our mind-frame to the demands of our time rather than follow thought patterns stemming from the enlightenment and/or the 18th Century.

Career Services

ESMT offers an add-on program to graduates of the Full-time MBA program who are interested not only in making an MBA at a quality school, but in taking a significant first step after graduation towards a career as responsible leaders.

After graduation, the Fellows serve as interns in a 6-months responsible leadership field practice, preferrably in a developing region of the world, working for example as assistant project managers in a not-for-profit local partner organization / NGO that helps to overcome human poverty and despair. After having completed their field practice the

Fellows are free to pursue their careers, most likely having learned from unforgettable experiences at the forefront of responsible leadership. ESMT will provide guidance during the project and, over time, assist the fellows in forming a strong international network.

ESMT will organize for contracts with local partner organizations. Fellows will have financial support covering on-site cost of living, traveling and other project related

expenses. The practice project will not be compensated as a normal management job. The RL Fellowship will serve the needs of the local organization, help the world to become a better place and provide the ESMT graduate with the opportunity of a unique, lasting experience that will change her or his views on management and business. It will be a fast-track to responsible leadership for every ESMT graduate who participates.

ESMT Center for Leadership Development Research (CLDR)
Business School Housing? Yes
Number of Faculty: 10
Contact Name: Konstantin Korotov
Contact Email: konstantin.korotov@esmt.org

The ESMT Center for Leadership Development Research brings together academics, educators, and practitioners in the field of leadership development with the aim to enhance our understanding of leadership development in modern organizations. We are particularly interested in studying how companies support their employees in making transitions to leader roles, how people embrace or create opportunities for learning to lead, and how leadership in organizations evolves. We also engage in research and practice of Executive Coaching as a professional service aimed at helping current and aspiring leaders realize their potential for the benefit of organizations and societies. The Center is a platform for collaboration between professors, faculty professionals, practitioners, and executive coaches interested in promoting a better understanding of leadership development and experimenting with leadership development methods and tools.

E.ON Chair in Corporate Responsibility
Business School Housing? Yes
Number of Faculty: 2
Contact Name: Christel Nelius
Contact Email: christel.nelius@esmt.org

The Chair's expertise is in the area of business strategy innovation aimed at increasing both business and social value, specifically how companies can use underleveraged “intangible assets” such as corporate identity and reputation, membership and brand

Investment Club

The investment club gives students the opportunity to practice sustainable, long-term investment practices while at the school. The students work closely with the schools financial management department, and are given an amount of funds with which they can invest. Students must develop a strategy, and must seek approval for each investment, which allows the school to foster an atmosphere where the investments are ethical and sustainable in nature.

School outreach programs

As an outreach program to the community, ESMT invites disadvantaged high school students in Berlin for two days of job application training with ESMT lecturers and HR practitioners. The project workshop is of great relevance to the students as they begin the competitive process of applying for an apprenticeship. The workshops are as diverse as the requirements for a successful job application. An introduction to politics and the market economy is followed by team-building games and sessions on how to best organize the whole application process, as well as professional photos.

ESMT Executive MBA classes have also been involved with school outreach. They cooked together with over 40 pupils aged 9 to 11 from the primary school in an economically disadvantaged area of Berlin. They planned the meal with the children, shopping and cooking together. The schoolchildren also visited ESMT campus to learn more about the business school and going to university in general.

Entrepreneur Club

The entrepreneur club is a student- and alumni-run initiative that serves as a platform for ideas, approaches, and thoughts on starting an entrepreneurial venture. The club invites speakers to campus for evening events, and many in the club are interested in social entrepreneurial ventures and opportunities in developing countries.

Social Impact Club

The Social Impact Club is run by ESMT students and alumni who share a common interest in applying their skills to the benefit of the community and to those in need, regardless of geographical location, ethnicity or religion. The club aims to facilitate support for those in need of help through a wide range of activities and projects, support which may be in the form of donations, volunteering, community service, and other initiatives. Its mission is to bring together social organizations, activate networks and promote social entrepreneurship activities.

An example of a current project is:

The Social impact club is currently supporting the X-runner team within the scope of one of its stated goals to help and support national / international social businesses which target to create sustainable social impact (focusing on issues of poverty, environmental protection, social imbalance, etc.). The support mainly consists of regular (at least weekly, current 2-3 times a week) on-site consulting in matters of strategic alignment, revising business plans and projections, financing and funding, strategic partnerships and operational prioritization and planning. Currently the team is focusing on developing and driving a sound financing structure mainly consisting of funding through private equity investments and through social venture funds.

X-runner is a social enterprise start-up that tackles the increasing sanitation crisis in urban areas in developing countries. The aim is to improve the living, health and security of families and individuals of the bottom of the pyramid in developing countries by introducing and distributing mobile toilets to private households in slums.

The mobile, water-neutral x-runner toilet has been specifically designed according to the challenges of slum environments such as water scarcity, lack of a sewage systems, restricted space and poverty. When the toilet is full, it can be converted into a rollable device, which will then be brought to a nearby public toilet where the content can be dumped. The public toilet will be hooked to a bio-digester where the feces will be processed and turned into clean methane gas. The x-runner user can benefit from the gas on spot by using it for cooking, for light, or to charge batteries.

Do politically connected boards affect firm value?
Author(s): ; Jörg Rocholl

This article explores whether political connections are important in the United States. The article uses an original hand-collected data set on the political connections of board members of S&P 500 companies to sort companies into those connected to the Republican Party and those connected to the Democratic Party. The analysis shows a positive abnormal stock return following the announcement of the nomination of a politically connected individual to the board. This article also analyzes the stock-price response to the Republican win of the 2000 presidential election and finds that companies connected to the Republican Party increase in value, and companies connected to the Democratic Party decrease in value.

Journal Title: Review of Financial Studies (Oxford University Press) Volume: 6 Edition: 22 Page Numbers: 2331-2360
Marketing's consequences: Stakeholder marketing and supply chain CSR issues
Author(s): C.B. Bhattacharya

While considerable attention has been given to the harm done to consumers by marketing, less attention has been given to the harm done by consumers as an indirect effect of marketing activities, particularly in regard to supply chains. The recent development of dramatically expanded global supply chains has resulted in social and environmental problems upstream that are attributable at least in part to downstream marketers and consumers. Marketers have responded mainly by using corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication to counter the critique of CSK practice, but these claims of ethical corporate behavior often lack credibility and can result in a backlash against brands. The article argues that more adequate attention to the harmful upstream effects of downstream marketing and consumption decisions requires greater attention to stakeholder marketing and marketer efforts to help create responsible consumers. It concludes by identifying implications for further research in this important emergent area of marketing ethics.

Journal Title: Business Ethics Quarterly Volume: 4 Edition: 20 Page Numbers: 617-641
Maximizing business returns to corporate social responsibility: The role of corporate social responsibility communication
Author(s): ; C.B. Bhattacharya

By engaging in corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities, companies can not only generate favorable stakeholder attitudes and better support behaviors (e.g. purchase, seeking employment, investing in the company), but also, over the long run, build corporate image, strengthen stakeholder–company relationships, and enhance stakeholders' advocacy behaviors. However, stakeholders' low awareness of and unfavorable attributions towards companies' CSR activities remain critical impediments in companies' attempts to maximize business benefits from their CSR activities, highlighting a need for companies to communicate CSR more effectively to stakeholders. In light of these challenges, a conceptual framework of CSR communication is presented and its different aspects are analyzed, from message content and communication channels to company- and stakeholder-specific factors that influence the effectiveness of CSR communication.

Journal Title: International Journal of Management Review Volume: 1 Edition: 12 Page Numbers: 8-19
Resource and revenue management in nonprofit operations
Author(s): Francis de Véricourt

Nonprofit firms sometimes engage in for-profit activities for the purpose of generating revenue to subsidize their mission activities. The organization is then confronted with a consumption versus investment trade-off, where investment corresponds to providing capacity for revenue customers, and consumption corresponds to serving mission customers. Exemplary of this approach are the Aravind Eye Hospitals in India, where profitable paying hospitals are used to subsidize care at free hospitals. We model this problem as a multiperiod stochastic dynamic program. In each period, the organization must decide how much of the current assets should be invested in revenue-customer service capacity, and at what price the service should be sold. We provide sufficient conditions under which the optimal capacity and pricing decisions are of threshold type. Similar results are derived when the selling price is fixed, but the banking of assets from one period to the next is allowed. We compare the performance of the optimal threshold policy with heuristics that may be more appealing to managers of nonprofit organizations, and we assess the value of banking and of dynamic pricing through numerical experiments.

Journal Title: Operations Research Volume: 5 Edition: 57 Page Numbers: 1114-1128
Strengthening stakeholder-company relationships through mutually beneficial corporate social responsibility initiatives
Author(s): C.B. Bhattacharya

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) continues to gain attention atop the corporate agenda and is by now an important component of the dialogue between companies and their stakeholders. Nevertheless, there is still little guidance as to how companies can implement CSR activity in order to maximize returns to CSR investment. Theorists have identified many company-favoring outcomes of CSR; yet there is a dearth of research on the psychological mechanisms that drive stakeholder responses to CSR activity. Borrowing from the literatures on means-end chains and relationship marketing, we propose a conceptual model that explains how CSR provides individual stakeholders with numerous benefits (functional, psychosocial, and values) and how the type and extent to which a stakeholder derives these benefits from CSR initiatives influences the quality of the relationship between the stakeholder and the company. The paper discusses the implications of these␣insights and highlights a number of areas for future research.

Journal Title: Journal of Business Ethics Volume: 2 Edition: 85 Page Numbers: 257-272
The debate over doing good: Corporate social performance, strategic marketing levers, and firm-idiosyncratic risk
Author(s): ; C.B. Bhattacharya

Marketers and investors face a heated, provocative debate over whether excelling in social responsibility initiatives hurts or benefits firms financially. This study develops a theoretical framework that predicts (1) the impact of corporate social performance (CSP) on firm-idiosyncratic risk and (2) the role of two strategic marketing levers, advertising and research and development (R&D), in explaining the variability of this impact among different firms. The results show that higher CSP lowers undesirable firm-idiosyncratic risk. Notably, although the salutary impact of CSP is greater in firms with higher (versus lower) advertising, a simultaneous pursuit for CSP, advertising, and R&D is harmful with increased firm-idiosyncratic risk. For theory, the authors advance the literature on the marketing–finance interface by drawing attention to the risk-reduction potential of CSP and by shedding new light on some critical but neglected roles of strategic marketing levers. They also extend CSP research by moving away from the long-fought battle for a universal CSP impact and toward a finer-grained understanding of when some firms derive more risk-reduction benefits from CSP. For practice, the results indicate that the “goodwill refund” of CSP is not unconditional. They also empower marketers to communicate more effectively with investors (i.e., doing good to better manage the risk surrounding firm stock prices).

Journal Title: Journal of Marketing (American Marketing Association) Volume: 6 Edition: 73 Page Numbers: 198-213
Trust and creativity: understanding the role of trust in creativity-oriented joint developments
Author(s): Francis Bidault

In this article we report on the design, prototyping and results of a research effort aimed at identifying whether and how trust affects the innovativeness of a partnership between two players. The methodology combined an experiment and two questionnaires. The research aimed to increase our understanding of trust and its impact on the innovative outcome of cooperation and to derive some guidance for economic actors, namely R&D managers and executives who intend to build innovation-oriented relationships with their business partners. Specifically, we investigated the effect of trust on partners' creativity and willingness to invest financially in a joint development. Our results show that more trustful partners invest higher amounts in the alliance, while there seems to be an optimum amount of mutual trust between partners who maximize their joint creativity and innovativeness; if the level of mutual trust is below or above this threshold, their joint creativity seems to increase less or even to decrease. Our findings suggest that joint development projects should always include explicit trust development activities at the beginning of the project, and that the amount of trust in the joint team should be monitored to avoid the negative consequences of excessive trust.

Journal Title: R&D Management Volume: 3 Edition: 39 Page Numbers: 259-270