List of publications

Below is a list of my publications with links to PDFs and abstracts. Please note that the full paper PDFs are provided as a professional courtesy to readers; the copyrights remain with the copyright holders as indicated in each document.


Forthcoming/published articles

Schilke, Oliver, and Gabriel Rossman. Forthcoming. "Honor among crooks: the role of trust in obfuscated disreputable exchange." American Sociological Review.

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When people want to conduct a transaction, but doing so would be morally disreputable, they can obfuscate the fact that they are engaging in an exchange while still arranging for a set of transfers that are effectively equivalent to an exchange. Obfuscation through structures such as gift giving and brokerage is pervasive across a wide range of disreputable exchanges, such as bribery and sex work. In this paper, we develop a theoretical account that sheds light on when actors are more versus less likely to obfuscate. Specifically, we report a series of experiments addressing the effect of trust on the decision to engage in obfuscated disreputable exchange. We find that actors obfuscate more often with exchange partners high in loyalty-based trustworthiness, with expected reciprocity and moral discomfort mediating this effect. However, the effect is highly contingent on the type of trust; trust facilitates obfuscation when it is loyalty-based, but this effect flips when trust is ethics-based. Our findings not only offer insights into the important role of relational context in shaping moral understandings and choices about disreputable exchange but also contribute to scholarship on trust by demonstrating that distinct forms of trust can have diametrically opposed effects.

Schilke, Oliver, and Fabrice Lumineau. Forthcoming. "How organizational is interorganizational trust?" Academy of Management Review.

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Trust represents a key social mechanism facilitating collaboration in interorganizational relationships. Yet, the concept of interorganizational trust is still surrounded by substantial ambiguity, especially as it pertains to the levels of analysis at which it is located. Some scholars maintain that trust is an inherently individual-level phenomenon, whereas others insist that organizations constitute the central sources and referents of trust in interorganizational relationships. Our article addresses this controversy, aiming to reduce conceptual ambiguity and foster cumulative progress. Using a micro-sociological approach, we advance knowledge of the meaning and context-specific relevance of individual- vs. organizational-level trust. Specifically, we apply the notion of organizational actorhood to both the trustor and the trustee in an interorganizational relationship. We then build on micro-institutional and entitativity theory to offer a model of the antecedents of organizational actorhood that identifies a set of contextual conditions explaining the degree to which an organization rather than individuals within it constitutes the focal origin and target of trust. The contingent account we propose here helps bridge disparate traditions of scholarship on interorganizational trust by highlighting that trust can, but need not always, reside to a substantial extent at a supraindividual level of analysis.

Evans, Jon, and Oliver Schilke. Forthcoming. "The power to reward vs. the power to punish: the influence of power framing on individual-level exploration." Organization Science.

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This article adopts a relational perspective to demonstrate that characteristics of the dyadic relationship between supervisors and their employees are critical to understanding individual-level exploration—understood as the extent to which organizational members pursue new opportunities and experiment with changes to current practices. To this end, we introduce the concept of power framing—that is, whether the control over valued resources is emphasized as the ability to reward or to punish—and propose that supervisor power framing shapes employee exploration. In an experimental study, we demonstrate that reward (vs. punishment) power framing increases employee exploration behavior and that this effect is mediated by perceived trustworthiness of the supervisor. In a second survey study, we replicate these findings in a field sample and also show that the relationship between reward power framing and exploration depends upon the degree to which the focal employee is sensitive to power characteristics (i.e., power distance orientation). This investigation advances scholarship on the micro-foundations of exploration while also highlighting the ability of leaders to alter trustworthiness perceptions and induce employee exploration through power framing.

Levine, Sheen S., Oliver Schilke, Olenka Kacperczyk, and Lynne G. Zucker. 2023. "Primer for experimental Methods in organization theory." Organization Science, 34 (6), 1997-2025.

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Experiments have long played a crucial role in various scientific disciplines and have been gaining ground in organization theory, where they add unique value by establishing causality and uncovering theoretical mechanisms. This essay provides an overview of the merits and procedures of the experimental methodology, with an emphasis on its application to organization theory. Drawing on the historical roots of experiments and their impact across science, we argue the method holds immense potential for furthering organization theory. We highlight key advantages of experimental methods, including high internal and construct validity, vividness in communicating findings, the capacity to examine complex and understudied phenomena, and the identification of microfoundations and theoretical mechanisms. We alleviate some concerns about external validity and offer guidance for designing and conducting sound, reproducible experimental research. Ultimately, we contend that the current experimental turn holds the potential to reorient organization theory.

Schilke, Oliver, Andrew Powell, and Maurice Schweitzer. 2013. "A review of experimental research on organizational trust." Journal of Trust Research, 13(2), 102-139.

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Trust profoundly shapes organisational, group, and dyadic outcomes. Reflecting its importance, a substantial and growing body of scholarship has investigated the topic of trust. Much of this work has used experiments to identify clear, causal relationships. However, in contrast to theoretical work that conceptualises trust as a multi-faceted (e.g. ability, benevolence, integrity), multi-level (e.g. interpersonal, intergroup), and dynamic construct, experimental scholarship investigating trust has largely investigated benevolence-based trust in dyadic relationships. As a result of the relatively limited set of paradigms experimental scholars have used to investigate trust, many questions related to different forms and types of trust remain un- and under-explored in experimental work. In this review, we take stock of the existing experimental trust scholarship and identify key gaps in our current understanding of trust. We call for future experimental work to investigate ability-based and integrity-based trust, to advance our understanding of the interplay between relationship history and trust, to study trust as a multi-level construct, to focus on the consequences of trust including the hazards of misplaced trust, and to study trust maintenance. To support these lines of inquiry, we introduce an ideal-typical process model to develop or adapt appropriate trust experiments.

Piezunka, Henning, and Oliver Schilke. 2023. "The dual function of organizational structure: aggregating and shaping individuals' votes." Organization Science, 34 (5), 1914-1937. 

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How do organizational structures influence organizational decision making? This article reveals organizational structures' dual function: they both (1) aggregate and (2) shape individuals' decisions. What makes this dual function so remarkable is that the two effects are diametrically opposed to one another. Ceteris paribus, a less stringent decision-making structure reduces the amount of support required for a given project to be greenlit at the organizational level, which should result in more investments getting approved. However, we find that this ceteris paribus assumption does not hold, because a less stringent decision-making structure also reduces individuals' tendency to provide their support for an investment. Our experimental investigation of organizational voting provides evidence for our position that organizational structure plays an important role beyond mere aggregation: voting thresholds also affect individuals' voting behavior. The combination of both effects explains why the organizational adoption of a new voting threshold may not yield the intended outcome.

Lumineau, Fabrice, Oliver Schilke, and Wenqian Wang. 2023. "Organizational trust in the age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution: shifts in the nature, production, and targets of trust." Journal of Management Inquiry, 32(1), 21-34.

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In this essay, we argue that the advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution calls for a reexamination of trust patterns within and across organizations. We identify fundamental changes in terms of (1) what form organizational trust takes, (2) how it is produced, and (3) who needs to be trusted. First, and most broadly, trust is likely to become more Impersonal and systemic. Trust between actors is increasingly substituted by trust in a system based on digital technology. Second, in terms of trust production modes, characteristic- and institution-based trust production will gain in importance. Third, despite the move toward system trust, there will nonetheless be a need to trust certain individuals; however, these trustees are no longer the counterparts to the interaction but rather third parties in charge of the technological systems and data. Thus, the focal targets of interpersonal trust are changing.

Reimann, Martin, Christoph Hüller, Oliver Schilke, and Karen S. Cook. 2022. "Impression management attenuates the effect of ability on trust in economic exchange." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(30), e2118548119.

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Are competent actors still trusted when they promote themselves? The answer to this question could have far-reaching implications for understanding trust production in a variety of economic exchange settings in which ability and impression management play vital roles, from succeeding in one's job to excelling in the sales of goods and services. Much social science research assumes an unconditional positive impact of an actor's ability on the trust placed in that actor: in other words, competence breeds trust. In this report, however, we challenge this assumption. Across a series of experiments, we manipulated both the ability and the self-promotion of a trustee and measured the level of trust received. Employing both online laboratory studies (n = 5,606) and a field experiment (n = 101,520), we find that impression management tactics (i.e., self-promotion and intimidation) can substantially backfire, at least for those with high ability. An explanation for this effect is encapsuled in attribution theory, which argues that capable actors are held to higher standards in terms of how kind and honest they are expected to be. Consistent with our social attribution account, mediation analyses show that competence combined with self-promotion decreases the trustee's perceived benevolence and integrity and, in turn, the level of trust placed in that actor.

Krishnan, Rekha, Karen S. Cook, Rajiv Kozhikode, & Oliver Schilke. 2021. "An interaction ritual theory of social resource exchange: evidence from a Silicon Valley accelerator." Administrative Science Quarterly, 66(3), 659-710.

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Recent research on start-up accelerators has drawn attention to the central importance of social resource exchange among peers for entrepreneurial success. However, such peer relationships contain both cooperative and competitive elements, making accelerators a prime example of a mixed-motive context in which successful generalized exchange—unilateral giving without expectations of direct reciprocity—is all but certain. In our ethnographic study of a Silicon Valley accelerator, we sought to explore how generalized exchange emerges and evolves over time. Employing an abductive, sequential mixed-methods approach, we develop a process model that helps explain how a system of generalized exchange may or may not emerge. At the core of this model are the interaction rituals within social events that come to create distinct exchange expectations, which are either aligned or incompatible with generalized exchange, resulting in fulfilled or failed exchanges in subsequent encounters. Whereas fulfilled exchanges can kickstart virtuous exchange dynamics and a thriving generalized exchange system, failed exchanges trigger vicious exchange dynamics and an unstable social order. These findings bring clarity to the puzzle of how some generalized exchange systems overcome the social dilemma in mixed-motive contexts by highlighting the central role of alignment between structure and process.

Schilke, Oliver, Martin Reimann, & Karen S. Cook. 2021. "Trust in social relations." Annual Review of Sociology, 47, 239-259.

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Trust is key to understanding the dynamics of social relations, to the extent that it is often viewed as the glue that holds society together. We review the mounting sociological literature to help answer what trust is and where it comes from. To this end, we identify two research streams—on particularized trust and generalized trust—and propose an integrative framework that bridges these lines of research while also enhancing conceptual precision. This framework provides the springboard for identifying several important avenues for future research, including new investigations into the radius of trust, the intermediate form of categorical trust, and the interrelationships between different forms of trust. This article also calls for more sociological scholarship focusing on the consequences (rather than antecedents) of trust, addressing more fully the trustee side of the relation, and employing new empirical methods. Such novel approaches will ensure that the sociology of trust will continue to provide important insights into the functioning of modern society in the years to come.

Yoo, Taeyoung, Oliver Schilke, & Reinhard Bachmann. 2021. "Neither acquiescence nor defiance: Tuscan wineries' 'flexible reactivity' to the Italian government's quality regulation system." British Journal of Sociology, 72(5), 1430-1447.

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This article introduces the concept of "flexible reactivity" to describe and analyze a form of economic actors' response to multiple judgment devices. Using the example of government regulation in the Tuscan wine industry, we show that wineries can in part comply with the government's quality classifications system while, at the same time, also offering products outside the official classification system. Through this research, we provide novel insights into the role of judgment devices and contribute to a more nuanced understanding of organizational responses to institutional pressures. Extending prior institutional-complexity research, our study illustrates that organizations' reactions to judgment devices are not limited to only the two options of either acquiescence or defiance. The third option—flexible reactivity—encompasses an explicit combination of acquiescence and defiance at the actor level. Our findings shed new light on how organizations can cope with contradictory external demands such that contrasting logics compete for organizational resources and breed heterogeneous and continuously shifting product offerings.

Haack, Patrick, Oliver Schilke, & Lynne G. Zucker. 2021. "Legitimacy revisited: disentangling propriety, validity, and consensus." Journal of Management Studies, 58(3), 749-781.

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Recent research has conceptualized legitimacy as a multi-level phenomenon comprising propriety and validity. Propriety refers to an individual evaluator’s belief that a legitimacy object is appropriate for its social context, whereas validity denotes an institutionalized, collective-level perception of appropriateness. In this article, we refine this multi-level understanding of legitimacy by adding a third, meso-level construct of 'consensus', which we define as the agreement between evaluators' propriety beliefs. Importantly, validity and consensus are distinct and can be incongruent, given that an institutionalized perception can hide underlying disagreement. Disentangling validity from consensus is a crucial extension of the multi-level theory of legitimacy, because it enables an improved understanding of the legitimacy processes that precede sudden and unanticipated institutional change. In particular, while previous works considered revised propriety beliefs as the starting point for institutional change, our account emphasizes that the disclosure of the actual (vs. merely assumed) belief distribution within a social context may instigate institutional change. To study the interplay of propriety, validity, and consensus empirically, we propose a set of experimental designs specifically geared towards improving knowledge of the role of legitimacy and its components in institutional change.

Lumineau, Fabrice, Wenqian Wang, & Oliver Schilke. 2021. "Blockchain governance - a new way of organizing collaborations?" Organization Science, 32(2), 500-521.

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The recent emergence of blockchains may be considered a critical turning point in organizing collaborations. We outline the historical background and the fundamental features of blockchains and present an analysis with a focus on their role as governance mechanisms. Specifically, we argue that blockchains offer a way to enforce agreements and achieve cooperation and coordination that is distinct from both traditional contractual and relational governance as well as from other information technology solutions. We also examine the scope of blockchains as efficient governance mechanisms and highlight the tacitness of the transaction as a key boundary condition. We then discuss how blockchain governance interacts with traditional governance mechanisms in both substitutive and complementary ways. We pay particular attention to blockchains’ social implications as well as their inherent challenges and limitations. Our analysis culminates in a research agenda that explores how blockchains may change the way to organize collaborations, including issues of what different types of blockchains may emerge, who is involved and impacted by blockchain governance, why actors may want blockchains, when and where blockchains can be more (versus less) effective, and how blockchains influence a number of important organizational outcomes.

Zucker, Lynne G., & Oliver Schilke. 2020. "Towards a theory of micro-institutional processes: forgotten roots, links to social-psychological research, and new ideas." Research in the Sociology of Organizations, 65B, 371-389.

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In this chapter, the authors weave together a set of ideas that lead us closer to a more general institutional theory – one that embraces multiple levels of analysis, including the micro-level. The authors build on the roots of micro-institutional thought – including phenomenological and ethnomethodological underpinnings – as well as very active, social-psychological research areas that address key mechanisms in institutionalization. Among these, the authors discuss the important roles of legitimacy, trust, social influence, and routines. There is great promise for micro-institutional inquiry to make an integral contribution to institutional theory by bringing processes and people back in.

Schilke, Oliver, & Han Jiang. 2019. "Embeddedness across governance modes: is there a link between pre-merger alliances and divestitures?" Academy of Management Discoveries, 5(2), 1-15.

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The current study explores whether and how an organization's different types of governance modes—alliances, mergers, and divestitures—may be intertwined over time. As such, we consider whether boundary decisions may be socially embedded not just within, but across different governance modes. In particular, we focus the analysis on a specific three-stage temporal sequence, which represents a common trajectory of consecutive governance modes: (1) alliance, followed by (2) merger, followed by (3) divestiture. Based on data from the Securities Data Company (SDC) Platinum database and Compustat database, our survival analysis results indicate that pre-merger alliances are significantly associated with divestiture likelihood: mergers between organizations that had been involved in an alliance before entering into the merger are found less likely to be divested. The paper's results underline the merits of simultaneously considering multiple types of ties when analyzing issues related to organizational embeddedness, complements recent research on sequential corporate-strategy patterns, and sheds new light on the important empirical phenomenon of pre-merger alliances.

Schilke, Oliver, & Gabriel Rossman. 2018. "It's only wrong if it's transactional: moral perceptions of obfuscated exchange." American Sociological Review, 83(6), 1079-1107.

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A wide class of economic exchanges, such as bribery and compensated adoption, are considered morally disreputable precisely because they are seen as economic exchanges. However, parties to these exchanges can structurally obfuscate them by arranging the transfers so as to obscure that a disreputable exchange is occurring at all. In this paper, we propose that four obfuscation structures—bundling, brokerage, gift exchange, and pawning—will decrease the moral opprobrium of external audiences by (1) masking intentionality, (2) reducing the explicitness of the reciprocal nature, and (3) making the exchange appear to be a type of common practice. We report the results from four experiments assessing participants' moral reactions to scenarios that describe either an appropriate exchange, a quid pro quo disreputable exchange, or various forms of obfuscated exchange. In support of our hypotheses, results show that structural obfuscation effectively mitigates audiences' moral offense at disreputable exchanges and that the effects are substantially mediated by perceived attributional opacity, transactionalism, and collective validity.

Schilke, Oliver, & Laura Huang. 2018. "Worthy of trust? How brief interpersonal contact affects trust accuracy." Journal of Applied Psychology, 103(11), 1181-1197.

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Organizational scholars have long underscored the positive consequences of trust, yet trust can also have dysfunctional effects if it is not placed wisely. Though much research has examined conditions that increase individuals' tendencies to trust others, we know very little about the circumstances under which individuals are likely to make more accurate trust decisions (i.e., neither misplace their trust nor refrain from trusting when doing so would have been beneficial), especially when they must do so rapidly and in the absence of an exchange history. Put simply, we have little understanding of what drives the accuracy of swift trust judgments. Building on relevant literatures, we propose that short episodes of prior interpersonal contact with a partner can increase the accuracy of swift trust decisions. Across two experimental studies, we demonstrate that brief interpersonal contact leads trustors to both (a) become more accurate in their trust decisions; and (b) engage in other-focused perspective taking, which mediates the effect of interpersonal contact on trust accuracy. We then show that it is specifically because of verbal cues, rather than visual cues, that brief interpersonal contact enables other-focused perspective taking, and in turn, trust accuracy (Study 3). We contribute to the literature on trust by examining trust accuracy (rather than mere trust levels), identifying the significant role of brief interpersonal contact, and revealing other-focused perspective taking as a key mechanism in accurate swift trust decisions.

Schilke, Oliver. 2018. "A micro-institutional inquiry into resistance to environmental pressures." Academy of Management Journal, 61(4), 1431-1466.

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This article contributes to the emerging stream of micro-institutional research, which zooms in on the internal organizational processes that are responsible for organizations’ differential responses to the external environment. Specifically, the investigation offers new knowledge of how organizational identity processes can shape whether decision makers will resist versus give in to environmental pressures. Building on the notion that organizational identity acts as a filter through which decision makers relate to the external environment, I develop the theoretical argument that strong organizational identification increases resistance to environmental pressures due to two mechanisms: (1) it bolsters the decision maker's certainty and (2) it deflects the decision maker's attention from the environment. A series of laboratory experiments not only test the mediated relationship between organizational identification and resistance to environmental pressures but also contrasts different types of organizational identity. The empirical results support the hypothesized positive link between organizational identification and resistance, which becomes particularly strong when the organizational identity is normative (vs. utilitarian). The findings reported here enrich institutional theory by adding microfoundations to organizational practice-adoption decisions and shedding new light on relevant enabling conditions for agency and within-field heterogeneity.

Lumineau, Fabrice, & Oliver Schilke. 2018. "Trust development across levels of analysis: an embedded-agency perspective." Journal of Trust Research, 8(2), 238-248.

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This article advances a cross-level model of trust development. Drawing upon an embedded-agency perspective from institutional theory, we combine a top-down with a bottom-up approach, reflecting the inherent duality of trust in organisational settings. Specifically, we elaborate a reciprocal process that illustrates how organisational structures influence individuals' trust and, at the same time, how individuals' trust manifests in organisational structures. We discuss the theoretical implications of our cross-level model for the trust literature and propose important avenues for future research.

Schilke, Oliver, & Fabrice Lumineau. 2018. "The double-edged effect of contracts on alliance performance." Journal of Management, 44(7), 2827-2858.

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Despite substantial scholarly interest in the role of contracts in alliances, few studies have analyzed the mechanisms and conditions relevant to their influence on alliance performance. In this paper, we build on the information-processing view of the firm to study contracts as framing devices. We suggest that the effects of contracts depend on the types of provisions included and differentiate between the consequences of control and coordination provisions. Specifically, control provisions will increase the level of conflict between alliance partners whereas coordination provisions will decrease such conflict. Conflict, in turn, reduces alliance performance, suggesting a mediated relationship between alliance contracts and performance. We also contribute to a better understanding of contextual influences on the consequences of contracts and investigate the interactions of each contractual function with both internal and external uncertainties. Key informant survey data on 171 alliances largely support our conceptual model.

Schilke, Oliver, Songcui Hu, & Constance Helfat. 2018. "Quo vadis, dynamic capabilities? A content-analytic review of the current state of knowledge and recommendations for future research." Academy of Management Annals, 12(1), 390-439.

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Although the dynamic capabilities perspective has become one of the most frequently used theoretical lenses in management research, critics have repeatedly voiced their frustration with this literature, particularly bemoaning the lack of empirical knowledge and the underspecification of the construct of dynamic capabilities. But research on dynamic capabilities has advanced considerably since its early years, in which most contributions to this literature were purely conceptual. A plethora of empirical studies as well as further theoretical elaborations have shed substantial light on a variety of specific, measurable factors connected to dynamic capabilities. Our article starts out by analyzing these studies to develop a meta-framework that specifies antecedents, dimensions, mechanisms, moderators, and outcomes of dynamic capabilities identified in the literature to date. This framework provides a comprehensive and systematic synthesis of the dynamic capabilities perspective that reflects the richness of the research while at the same time unifying it into a cohesive, overarching model. Such an analysis has not yet been undertaken; no comprehensive framework with this level of detail has previously been presented for dynamic capabilities. Our analysis shows where research has made the most progress and where gaps and unresolved tensions remain. Based on this analysis, we propose a forward-looking research agenda that outlines directions for future research.

Reimann, Martin, Oliver Schilke, & Karen Cook. 2017. "Trust is heritable, whereas distrust is not." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(27), 7007-7012.

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Why do people distrust others in social exchange? To what degree, if at all, is distrust subject to genetic influences, and thus possibly heritable, and to what degree is it nurtured by families and immediate peers who encourage young people to be vigilant and suspicious of others? Answering these questions could provide fundamental clues about the sources of individual differences in the disposition to distrust, including how they may differ from the sources of individual differences in the disposition to trust. In this article, we report the results of a study of monozygotic and dizygotic female twins who were asked to decide either how much of a counterpart player's monetary endowment they wanted to take from their counterpart (i.e., distrust) or how much of their own monetary endowment they wanted to send to their counterpart (i.e., trust). Our results demonstrate that although the disposition to trust is explained to some extent by heritability but not by shared socialization, the disposition to distrust is explained by shared socialization but not by heritability. The sources of distrust are therefore distinct from the sources of trust in many ways.

Schilke, Oliver, Gunnar Wiedenfels, Malte Brettel, & Lynne G. Zucker. 2017. "Interorganizational trust production contingent on product and performance uncertainty." Socio-Economic Review, 15(2), 307-330. 

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How do organizations build trust under varying degrees of uncertainty? In this article, we propose that different degrees of uncertainty require different bases of trust. We distinguish between three different forms of trust production (process-based, characteristics-based, and institution-based) and develop hypotheses regarding their relative effectiveness under low versus high levels of product and performance uncertainty. Using survey data on 392 interorganizational buyer-seller relationships, we find support for our position that a high degree of uncertainty favors process-based trust production, whereas characteristics-based trust production is relatively more effective when uncertainty is low. The effectiveness of institution-based trust production is not significantly affected by uncertainty. We derive implications for organizational trust production under different degrees of uncertainty, which should encourage new research on trust.

Schilke, Oliver, Martin Reimann, & Karen S. Cook. 2015. "Power decreases trust in social exchange." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(42), 12950-12955.

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How does lacking versus possessing power in a social exchange affect people's trust in their exchange partner? An answer to this question could have broad implications for a number of exchange settings in which dependence and uncertainty play an important role. Here, we report on a series of experiments in which we manipulated participants' power position in terms of structural dependence and observed their trust perceptions and behaviors. Over a wide variety of different experimental paradigms and measures, we find that more powerful actors place less trust in others than less powerful actors do. Our results contradict predictions by rational actor models, which assume that low-power individuals are able to anticipate that a more powerful exchange partner will place little value on the relationship with them, thus tends to behave opportunistically, and consequently cannot be trusted. On the other hand, our results support predictions by motivated cognition theory, which posits that low-power individuals want their exchange partner to be trustworthy and then act according to that desire. Mediation analyses show that, consistent with the motivated cognition account, having low power increases individuals' hope and, in turn, their perceptions of their exchange partners' benevolence, which ultimately leads them to trust their exchange partner.

Schilke, Oliver, & Karen S. Cook. 2015. "Sources of alliance partner trustworthiness: integrating calculative and relational perspectives." Strategic Management Journal, 36 (2), 276–297.

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Research on the sources of organizational trustworthiness remains bifurcated. Some scholars have adopted a calculative perspective, stressing the primacy of actors' rational calculations, while others have approached trustworthiness from a relational perspective, focusing on its social underpinnings. We help to reconcile these seemingly disparate views by adopting an integrative approach that allows us to clarify the boundaries of both perspectives. Based on dyadic survey data from 171 strategic alliances, we find that the calculative perspective (represented by contractual safeguards) has higher predictive power when the partner lacks a favorable reputation. In contrast, the relational perspective (represented by organizational culture) predicts trustworthiness more strongly when familiarity with the partner organization is high.

Schilke, Oliver. 2014. "Second-order dynamic capabilities: how do they matter?" Academy of Management Perspectives, 28(4), 368-380.

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Similar to the fairly well-established distinction between substantive capabilities and dynamic capabilities, a further distinction can be made between first-order dynamic capabilities (which have been the subject of much interest and debate over the last two decades) and second-order dynamic capabilities (which have received considerably less attention thus far). Based on a large-scale survey study in the context of strategic alliances, this paper empirically examines second-order dynamic capabilities in two ways. First, I find that, for the most part, the performance effect of second-order dynamic capabilities is indirect and mediated by first-order dynamic capabilities. Second, results show a negative interaction between first- and second-order dynamic capabilities, suggesting that they function as substitutes in affecting performance outcomes. These findings contribute to a better understanding of the interplay between levels of the dynamic capabilities hierarchy.

Rossman, Gabriel, & Oliver Schilke. 2014. "Close, but no cigar: the bimodal rewards to prize-seeking." American Sociological Review, 79(1), 86-108.

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This article examines the economic effects of prizes with implications for the diversity of market positions, especially in cultural fields. Many prizes have three notable features that together yield an emergent reward structure: (1) consumers treat prizes as judgment devices when making purchase decisions, (2) prizes introduce sharp discontinuities between winners and also-rans, and (3) appealing to prize juries requires costly sacrifices of mass audience appeal. When all three of these conditions obtain, winning a prize is valuable, but seeking it is costly, so trying and failing yields the worst outcome—a logic we characterize as a Tullock lottery. We test the model with analyses of Oscar nominations and Hollywood films from 1985-2009. We create an innovative measure of prize-seeking, or "Oscar appeal," on the basis of similarity to recent nominees in terms of such things as genre, plot keywords, and release date. We then show that Oscar appeal has no effect on profitability. However, this zero-order relationship conceals that returns to strong Oscar appeals are bimodal, with super-normal returns for nominees and large losses for snubs. We then argue that the effect of judgment devices on fields depends on how they structure and refract information.

Schilke, Oliver. 2014. "On the contingent value of dynamic capabilities for competitive advantage: the nonlinear moderating effect of environmental dynamism." Strategic Management Journal, 35(2), 179-203. 

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This article suggests that dynamic capabilities can give the firm competitive advantage, but this effect is contingent on the level of dynamism of the firm's external environment. A nonlinear, inverse U-shaped moderation is proposed, implying that the relationship between dynamic capabilities and competitive advantage is strongest under intermediate levels of dynamism but comparatively weaker when dynamism is low or high. This proposition is tested using data on alliance management capability and new product development capability, two specific dynamic capabilities widely recognized in prior research. Results based on longitudinal key informant data from 279 firms support the account that these dynamic capabilities are more strongly associated with competitive advantage in moderately dynamic than in stable or highly dynamic environments.

Schilke, Oliver, Martin Reimann, & Karen S. Cook. 2013. "Effect of relationship experience on trust recovery following a breach." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(38), 15236-15241.

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A violation of trust can have quite different consequences, depending on the nature of the relationship in which the trust breach occurs. In this article, we identify a key relationship characteristic that affects trust recovery: the extent of relationship experience before the trust breach. Across two experiments, this investigation establishes the behavioral effect that greater relationship experience before a trust breach fosters trust recovery. A neuroimaging experiment provides initial evidence that this behavioral effect is possible because of differential activation of two brain systems: while decision making after early trust breaches engages structures of a controlled social cognition system (C-system), specifically the anterior cingulate cortex and lateral frontal cortex, decision making after later trust breaches engages structures of an automatic social cognition system (X-system), specifically the lateral temporal cortex. The present findings make contributions to both social psychological theory and the neurophysiology of trust.

Schilke, Oliver, & Karen S. Cook. 2013. "A cross-level process theory of trust development in interorganizational relationships." Strategic Organization, 11(3), 281-303.

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Most research on trust in interorganizational relationships focuses on a single level of analysis, typically the individual or organizational level, and treats trust as a fairly static phenomenon. To stimulate more cross-level research, we propose a theoretical model that explains how trust in interorganizational relationships is related across various levels of analysis. At the same time, our model emphasizes the dynamic aspect of trust by examining how trust develops throughout consecutive relationship stages. Drawing from several programs of research, we identify the mechanisms that drive the progression of trust across levels as the interorganizational relationship unfolds. Starting with the boundary spanner as the key individual at the beginning of a new collaboration, we specify how trust gradually becomes part of the fabric of organizational action. By integrating micro and macro approaches over time, the proposed model contributes to a better understanding of how trust evolves in interorganizational relationships.

Kemper, Jan, Oliver Schilke, & Malte Brettel. 2013. "Social capital as a micro-level origin of organizational capabilities." Journal of Product Innovation Management, 30(3), 589-603.

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The microlevel concept of social capital has received significant attention in management and sociological research but has not yet been empirically associated with the development of organizational capabilities. The major purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship of social capital with marketing and research and development (R&D) capability and to explore how the environmental context moderates the social capital–organizational capability link. It is suggested that top management's social capital provides a firm with important information and control benefits that facilitate effective access to the knowledge and resources necessary for building superior organizational capabilities. In addition, we identify the role of two important environmental factors influencing the social capital–organizational capability link: technological turbulence and competitive intensity. The strength of the relationship between social capital and organizational capabilities is proposed to vary depending on the level of these two environmental characteristics. This study conceptualizes and operationalizes social capital as a multidimensional construct reflected by the structural dimension of tie strength, the relational dimension of trust, and the cognitive dimension of solidarity. Survey and archival data on 280 firms from various industries are analyzed using structural equation modeling. Empirical support for the proposed three-dimensional structure of social capital is found. Results further indicate that social capital is a significant antecedent to both marketing and R&D capability, which in turn significantly affect firm performance. While a positive relationship between social capital and organizational capabilities is supported in general, the strength of this relationship depends on the environmental context the firm is embedded in. The positive effect of social capital on marketing capability increases in environments with high technological turbulence and competitive intensity; the opposite holds for R&D capability. This research contributes to the resource-based view by introducing social capital as an important microlevel factor promoting the development of organizational capabilities. By identifying and evaluating two important environmental contingencies, our study also decreases some of the ambiguity surrounding the effectiveness of antecedents to organizational capabilities. The findings further help practitioners decide under what circumstances investing in top-managers' social capital provides an effective means for achieving superior performance through enhanced organizational capabilities. This should have an important bearing on issues such as management training and incentives as well as on hiring policies.

Kemper, Jan, Oliver Schilke, Martin Reimann, Xuyi Wang, & Malte Brettel. 2013. "Competition-motivated corporate social responsibility." Journal of Business Research, 66(10): 1954-1963.

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Despite corporate social responsibility (CSR) having become a key strategy for firms to use in advancing on a sustainable path, the role of CSR for firm performance outcomes remains poorly understood. Thus, in a large empirical study across several industries and countries, we examined CSR as moderator of the relationship between marketing capabilities and firm performance. Our study also follows prior research that calls for an inclusion of competitive intensity as a boundary condition to this moderation effect. As hypothesized, three-way interactions among competitive intensity, CSR, and marketing capabilities had significant relationships with firm performance. For firms in industries with high competitive intensity, marketing capabilities have a stronger positive impact on performance when CSR is high versus low. This research sheds light on the interplay between CSR and marketing by showing that vigorously competing firms should use CSR as a major lever for increasing the impact of marketing on performance.

Schilke, Oliver, & Bernd W. Wirtz. 2012. "Consumer acceptance of service bundles: an empirical investigation in the context of broadband triple play." Information & Management, 49(2): 81-88.

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Although offering bundled services promises firms potential synergies in supply and increased revenues, the realized benefits of such a strategy are highly contingent on consumer acceptance of the bundles. Borrowing from TAM, Information Integration Theory, and the customer value concept, we developed a comprehensive model for consumer acceptance of service bundles, which is divided into four general construct types: service characteristics, usefulness/ease of use, attitude, and behavioral intention. Twelve hypotheses were derived and empirically tested in the context of broadband triple play, the bundled offering of broadband Internet access, Internet telephony, and Internet TV. Based on questionnaire responses from 214 study participants and using PLS for analysis, we found overall support for our research model. We concluded by discussing the academic and managerial value of our research, both in terms of advanced knowledge of service bundle acceptance and the adoption of triple play.

Homburg, Christian, Martin Klarmann, Martin Reimann, & Oliver Schilke. 2012. "What drives key informant accuracy?" Journal of Marketing Research, 49(4): 594-608.

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In an effort to establish and enhance key informants' accuracy, organizational survey studies increasingly rely on triangulation techniques by including supplemental data sources that complement information acquired from key informants. Despite the growing popularity of triangulation, little guidance exists as to when and how it should be conducted. Addressing this gap, the authors develop hypotheses linking a comprehensive set of study characteristics at the construct, informant, organizational, and industry levels to key informant accuracy. Two studies test these hypotheses. The first study is a meta-analysis of triangulation applications. Using data from 127 studies published in six major marketing and management journals, the authors identify antecedents to key informant reliability. The second study, based on eight multi-informant datasets, analyzes antecedents to key informant validity. The results from these studies inform survey researchers as to which conditions particularly call for the use of triangulation. The paper concludes by offering guidelines on when and how to employ triangulation techniques.

Brettel, Malte, Andreas Engelen, Thomas Müller, & Oliver Schilke. 2011. "Distribution channel choice of new entrepreneurial ventures." Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 35(4): 683-708.

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This study provides a comprehensive analysis of distribution channel choices of new entrepreneurial ventures (NEVs). First, factors that influence NEVs' choice of distribution channels are examined. Second, performance consequences of those choices are investigated. A research model drawing from transaction cost economics as well as customer relationship and strategy literature is developed. Data collected from 330 NEVs are used to test the proposed model. The results show that the identified antecedents explain a large part of the variance in NEVs' channel choice. Moreover, NEVs that accomplish a fit between their distribution channel system and transaction cost-, product-, strategy-, and competition-related variables tend to perform better. Findings are discussed in light of the specific characteristics of NEVs.

Schilke, Oliver, & Anthony Goerzen. 2010. "Alliance management capability: an investigation of the construct and its measurement." Journal of Management, 36(5): 1192-1219.

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This research conceptualizes and operationalizes alliance management capability. The authors develop alliance management capability as a second-order construct to capture the degree to which organizations possess relevant management routines that enable them to effectively manage their portfolio of strategic alliances. In addition to identifying and measuring specific organizational routines as critical dimensions of alliance management capability, the authors advance knowledge on the performance effects of dedicated alliance structures and alliance experience based on survey data from 204 firms. Their primary contribution is a theoretically sound alliance management capability measure that is reflected by five underlying routines: interorganizational coordination, alliance portfolio coordination, interorganizational learning, alliance proactiveness, and alliance transformation. One of the key findings is that alliance management capability has a positive impact on alliance portfolio performance and mediates the performance effects of dedicated alliance structures and alliance experience.

Cook, Karen S., & Oliver Schilke. 2010. "The role of public, relational and organizational trust in economic affairs." Corporate Reputation Review, 13(2): 98-109.

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Trust, when established, contributes to the smooth running of political and economic systems which require the success of collective undertakings. Trust must be based on trustworthiness of the actors involved and the reliability of the institutions that are created to provide for the public good. Public trust is low when this is not the case. Even in the realm of business enterprises, market-based transactions, and the world of for-profit entities, trustworthiness and reliability build confidence in those who are the potential clients or consumers. In this paper, we discuss the role of trustworthiness in relations between physicians and their clients as one example of the role of public trust in professionals. We also discuss the role of trustworthiness in the realm of strategic alliances focusing on organizational culture and contractual safeguards as significant determinants of trust formation. We discuss the implications of this research and related work on the potential for increased trust at the relational, organizational and general societal levels in an ever-changing complex, global and interdependent world.

Wirtz, Bernd W., Oliver Schilke, & Sebastian Ullrich. 2010. "Strategic development of business models: implications of the Web 2.0 for creating value on the Internet." Long Range Planning, 43(2-3): 272-290.

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There is virtually a consensus that, to remain competitive, firms must continuously develop and adapt their business models. However, relatively little is known about how managers can go about achieving this transformation, and how, and to what extent, different types of business models should be adapted. To illustrate the differential effect of environmental changes on different business model types, this article draws from the '4C' Internet business model typology to elaborate on how a recent wave of changes on the Internet – the emergent Web 2.0 phenomenon – is affecting each of its four business model types. We argue that Web 2.0 trends and characteristics are changing the rules of the 'create and capture value' game, and thus significantly disrupt the effectiveness of established Internet business models. Since systematic empirical knowledge about Web 2.0 factors is very limited, a comprehensive Web 2.0 framework is developed, which is illustrated with two cases and verified through in-depth interviews with Internet business managers. Strategic recommendations on how to what extent different Web 2.0 aspects affect each business model type are developed. Executives can use the ideas and frameworks presented in the article to benchmark their firm's efforts towards embracing the changes associated with the Web 2.0 into their business model.

Schierz, Paul G., Oliver Schilke, & Bernd W. Wirtz. 2010. "Understanding consumer acceptance of mobile payment services: an empirical analysis." Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, 9(3): 209-216. 

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Mobile technology has become increasingly common in today's everyday life. However, mobile payment is surprisingly not among the frequently used mobile services, although technologically advanced solutions exist. Apparently, there is still a lack of acceptance of mobile payment services among consumers. The conceptual model developed and tested in this research thus focuses on factors determining consumers' acceptance of mobile payment services. The empirical results show particularly strong support for the effects of compatibility, individual mobility, and subjective norm. Our study offers several implications for managers in regards to marketing mobile payment solutions to increase consumers’ intention to use these services.

Wirtz, Bernd W., Alexander Mathieu, & Oliver Schilke. 2007. "Strategy in high-velocity environments." Long Range Planning, 40(3): 295-313.

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While industries such as ICT and biotechnology have been characterized as high-velocity environments, in which demand, competition and technology are constantly changing, there has been little systematic empirical research focusing on the conceptualisation and operationalisation of strategy in such environments or its effect on performance. This article draws from industrial economics and the resource-based view to conceptualise strategy in high-velocity environments as a multi-dimensional construct. Additionally, the construct's positive effect on business performance is empirically proven. The article closes with managerial implications and directions for further research.

Monographs

Wang, Wenqian, Fabrice Lumineau, & Oliver Schilke. 2022. Blockchains: strategic implications for contracting, trust, and organizational design. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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Blockchains have become increasingly important for organizing contemporary economic and social activities. This Element offers a deeper understanding of blockchains to both management scholars and practitioners, with an emphasis on blockchains' strategic implications for fundamental issues in organizing. It provides a critical examination of the core themes, theoretical lenses, and methodologies used in blockchain research in business and management scholarship. Furthermore, it offers an in-depth discussion of why and how blockchains offer a new way of organizing, providing profound implications for three major issues of strategic organization: contracting, trust, and organizational design. It also discusses several limitations of the technology in its current stage of development. Finally, this Element points to the implication of blockchains on both scholarly research and business practice.

Schilke, OliverCauses and consequences of institutional practices in organizations: routines, trust, and identity. UCLA, Doctoral dissertation.

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The central thrust of my dissertation research is oriented around institutional practices in organizations—i.e., those processes that organizational decision makers take for granted and execute quasi-automatically. My goal is to better understand how such practices emerge and become habitualized over time, how they affect perceptions of the organizational environment, and how they influence organizational success. Specifically, I study institutional practices as they pertain to (1) routines, (2) trust, and (3) identity.

Work in progress

Engelen, Andreas, Oliver Schilke, Michael Engels, & Verena Rieger. "A temporally contingent view of dynamic managerial capabilities in new ventures," under journal review.

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Abstract not available as article is currently in progress.

Oliveira, Nuno, Oliver Schilke, Fabrice Lumineau, Zhi Cao, & Baofeng Huo. "An actor-partner-interdependence model of interorganizational exchange: the influence of power on trust," under journal review. 

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Abstract not available as article is currently in progress.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

Trust

Schilke, Oliver, Martin Reimann, & Karen S. Cook. 2021. "Trust in social relations." Annual Review of Sociology, 47, 239-259.
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Structural obfuscation

Schilke, Oliver, & Gabriel Rossman. 2018. "It's only wrong if it's transactional: moral perceptions of obfuscated exchange." American Sociological Review.
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Legitimacy processes

Haack, Patrick, Oliver Schilke, & Lynne G. Zucker. 2021. "Legitimacy revisited: disentangling propriety, validity, and consensus." Journal of Management Studies.
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