Swedish tribalism and Tanzanian entrepreneurship: preconditions for trust formation

Malin Tillmar

Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 2006, vol. 18, issue 2, 91-107

Abstract: This paper sets out to explore the preconditions for trust formation using a comparative approach. It takes an empirical point of departure, in two longitudinal and ethnographically inspired studies in the differing contexts of Sweden and Tanzania. The comparison reveals many similarities between the contexts with regard to the influence of informal institutions, as well as the significance of categories in trust formation. Perhaps surprisingly, trust and co-operation are not as low as could be expected in Tanzania, given the inadequate formal institutional environment, but instead, the greater need for co-operation evoked entrepreneurial initiatives that enabled the creation of trust. While the Swedish small-business owners could afford their ‘tribalism’, Tanzanians created trust in an entrepreneurial way. The importance of interventions to understand the local institutional framework is highlighted and it is argued that arranging business training, or similar events, is a fruitful way to facilitate the trust creation process in development contexts.

Date: 2006
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/08985620500531956 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:entreg:v:18:y:2006:i:2:p:91-107

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/TEPN20

DOI: 10.1080/08985620500531956

Access Statistics for this article

Entrepreneurship & Regional Development is currently edited by Professor Alistair Anderson

More articles in Entrepreneurship & Regional Development from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().