Building trust relationship in cross-cultural collaboration: Case studies on two Chinese animation companies

Internationalization and inter-firm collaboration is a business trend today. Meanwhile, cultural values and managerial practices vary from country to country which makes cross-border management more challenging than the traditional in-house business model. A trusting relationship is essential to business success, yet details of how to build-up and maintain trust are unclear. This paper investigates trust development in cross-border collaboration. The literature review has covered key trust theories and its linkage with culture. To further understand the critical issues in of trust, two in-depth case studies are conducted from the Chinese animation game industry. It is found that in order to achieve long-term business collaboration, companies need to be continuously responsive and adapt their trust models. Based on the case analysis, a general model and a practical model are developed for further testing. Other research topics to further link trust with sustainability are also proposed at the end of the chapter.