Fast trust in first knowledge encounters between Angel investors and International start-up founders

In this work-in-progress paper we study how unfamiliar and diverse individuals sometimes come together and trust each other very fast during their first knowledge encounter. Based on our qualitative data from narratives and... [ view full abstract ]

In this work-in-progress paper we study how unfamiliar and diverse individuals sometimes come together and trust each other very fast during their first knowledge encounter. Based on our qualitative data from narratives and non-participant observations of international start-up founders’ and local investors’ first encounters in Silicon Valley we build a more nuanced understanding on the interpersonal trust process. Our findings suggest that there are three critical processes enabling unfamiliar and diverse parties to build fast trust for engaging in a knowledge encounter. Positive affect initiates goodwill trust that makes unfamiliar and diverse professionals willing to engage in a knowledge sharing. Perspective taking supports willingness to understand the other across diversity and supports competence trust. Psychological presence provides the intensity and multiplexity for knowledge sharing in a time-constrained situation. A coherence of the cognitive, affective and behavioral cues build identity trust. Based on our inductive research and past research on trust, emotions, psychological presence and perspective taking we provide testable propositions and conclude with implications for further research and practice.