Trust and the successful coordination of SME co-operation – an empirical study in Slovenia

This paper aims to investigate the role of trust and test the impact of trust on performance in the context of co-operation between small- and medium-sized enterprises (‘SMEs’) in a transition country. Based on a sample of 122 Slovenian SMEs, an analysis based on OLS regression reveals that trust does have a strong impact on performance. We thereby identify trust as a powerful co-ordinating mechanism for SME relationships involving co-operation in transition economies.