Opportunism and trust in cross- national lateral collaboration: the Renault-Nissan Alliance and a theory of equity-trust

Abstract

Post-merger integration governance and management mechanisms facilitating lateral collaboration remain opaque. In an analysis of the Renault-Nissan Alliance, we abduce a theory of equity-trust by drawing on microfoundations theory and four types of organizational justice. We identify five practices that motivate distributive, procedural, informational, and interactional justice, and find that these practices discourage opportunistic behavior and foster trust thereby influencing alliance performance in two ways: sum of the parts and learning and synergies. Our findings contribute to understanding cross-national lateral collaboration in the form of symbiotic post-merger integration in strategic alliances.