Empirically, self-employed persons often operate with the support of their partners or other household members as co-workers in the firm. The formal or informal employment of the marriage partner in particular seems to have a lot of advantages, such as fiscal benefits and low wage costs. But from a theoretical point of view, these advantages are jeopardized by serious cooperation problems: If the spouse of the self-employed decides to work in the jointly-run business, former qualifications are lost. Hence a one-sided dependence on the part of the co-working spouse arises, which increases with the amount of relation-specific investments. Hence the actors are confronted with a cooperation problem, because the decision for co-working requires trust concerning the future action of the self-employed. Within this framework, this paper is focused on the determinants which influence the decisions concerning collaborating in the business of a self employed life’s companion as well as the extent of labor provided in the case of co-working. It can be assumed that the three types of determinants investigated in this paper affect the assignment of a spouse or cohabitation partner in the business of a self-employment person: (1) economic determinants which are individual productivity and human capital of the life’s companion, (2) the situation of the family and the household, and (3) characteristics of the entrepreneur and the firm. Based on a sample of self-employed empirical analysis indicates that trust and specialization play a crucial role in explaining co-working of the life’s companions of self-employed persons. However, economic determinants like productivity and human capital do not show the expected effects on collaboration.

This paper investigates the roles of disagreement and trust in multicultural teamwork on an English-medium master's programme at an Austrian business university. The teamwork project - assigned by the content teacher - took place mostly outside the classroom and simulated business practice both in terms of the tasks and the multicultural context. Each team comprised two Austrian students and two international students, resulting in an English as a lingua franca (ELF) setting. The teams were observed and audio-/video-recorded, with the analysis focusing on an early stage of the project where they laid the groundwork for the team mental models in terms of establishing the team goals, relationships and communicative practices. Additionally, retrospective interviews were conducted at the end of the project with each of the team members and the lecturer to gain emic insights into the project. The findings suggest a symbiotic relationship between disagreement and trust, in which high levels of trust and the construction of a psychologically safe space allow the team members to disagree with and challenge each other without damaging their relationships, leading to better decisions. In turn, these decisions can contribute to a sense of shared success that strengthens the team's joint identity.

School of Economics, Diss.--Helsinki, 2007. / Enth. 3 Beitr.

Univ., Diss.--Wien, 2006.

Zugl.: Sankt Gallen, University, Diss., 2009.

This dissertation consists of three independent studies - two empirical studies and one literature review - that examine different issues regarding the involvement of employees in innovation within the growing open innovation environment. In particular, I focus on the different facets and vital enablers that influence involving the general workforce in innovation, among which trust plays a critical role for their active involvement and their decision to contribute to innovation. In the first study, the focus is on a powerful set of enablers of high involvement innovation, namely; the new corporate web technologies, and their role in accelerating a wider base of collective innovation. The second study then examines the involvement of a very specialized category of the workforce in innovation which is the highly qualified external workforce. Those employees represent a rich yet underexplored resource of employee innovation. Finally, in the third study, I focus on exploring the different roles played by innovation intermediaries and argue that intermediaries could take a more active role in open innovation, through proposing the ‘trust incubator’ role. New insights coming from this thesis advance the current discussion of actively and effectively involving employees in innovation, as well as uncover important and current related issues and allow us to draw conclusions that are useful for both research and practice.

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