We engage in applied research. This
means we generate and synthesise from up-to-date, evidence-based
research relevant to organisations and managers competing
in turbulent markets for global business: i.e. markets
where trust becomes a vital - if intangible - asset.
We conduct our research in the context of what we all commonly
today refer to as processes of ‘globalisation’ and ‘internationalisation’.
There are many competing definitions of globalisation.
To sociologists it means a reduction of space and time
: i.e. contexts within which people make important decisions
about business, about life. For managers engaged in strategic
thinking & planning, globalisation means a faster and
ever more complex flows of capital and information together
with the problems and opportunities that these flows generate:
e.g. in the context of (virtual) project team working.
innovation management & the commercialisation & protection
of IPR (cf. Jackson & Debroux, 2009).
For HR managers, internationalisation means an increasingly
diverse and mobile workforce; CSR and other environmental
concerns: employer branding in an increasingly dynamic
global market for talent. To illustrate: currently more
than 63,000 multinational corporations and 821,000 foreign
subsidiaries of these corporations employ 90 Million people
worldwide.
Consequently, all organisations
whether they are big or small, long established or start-up,
for-profit or not-for-profit, are becoming interdependent
players in an increasingly globalised and internationalised
business & management
environment (cf. Schwegler, 2009).
Against this background, our research
• Focuses on trust and its status as a strategic response
to risk & uncertainty, change & opportunity
• Links applied interpretations of trust to processes designed
to improve individual, team & organizational
performance
across business sectors & cultures. Our motto: better
trust, better performance
• Links trust to strategic management processes such as:
leadership, global (virtual) team working, international
business partnering, diversity & talent management,
employer branding, product / service branding
