New venture creation as establishing stakeholder relationships: A trust-based perspective

The importance of trust in numerous dyadic relationships (e.g., romantic relationships, co-workers) is well documented, yet trust within the context of entrepreneurship-specifically, enabling the emergence of new ventures-is largely unexplored. In particular, we know very little about how entrepreneurs use trust to establish each of the unique strategic alliances they must form with stakeholders to enable a new venture to enter the market. We present a theory-based approach, developed from existing literature on trust, to specify multiple stakeholder-oriented insights related to trust that may facilitate new venture creation. In sum, during venture initiation, stakeholders require entrepreneurs to convey nuanced interpersonal messages to develop, initially, dimensions of trust - ability, benevolence, and integrity - to effectively build these relationships that enable successful new firm emergence.