Research on asymmetric trust evolution in the Complex Products and Systems cooperative innovation network

Abstract

Inter-organizational trust has been paid great attention by managers for its important role played in the Complex Products and Systems (CoPS) cooperative innovation network. The characteristics of dynamics of trust mechanism and competition and cooperation among members in CoPS cooperative innovation network are analyzed. The trust generation and evolution mechanism in CoPS cooperative innovation network is proposed from the perspective of asymmetric trust by using evolutionary game theory. Results show that trust between members in CoPS cooperative innovation network is asymmetric most of the time during the evolution process. The long-term evolutionary equilibrium structure may be mutual trust among members in CoPS cooperative innovation network, and may not trust each other. The path which trust evolves along and the state it will reach are closely related to the payoff matrix and the game's initial state. Trust in CoPS cooperative innovation network evolves through the dynamic process of development, maintenance, and repair of violation. Trust repair strategy is discussed. Complex network organization management theory can be enriched and trust relationship management ability in CoPS cooperative innovation network can be enhanced with the research.