Social Trust and Open Innovation in an Informal Economy: The Emergence of Shenzhen Mobile Phone Industry

This study examines how social trust facilitates firms’ collaborative efficiency in an informal economy. We extend the open innovation theory to explain the straightforward role of social trust in the Shenzhen mobile phone industry. This single case study yields two principal findings. First, social trust fosters the efficient integration of value chains for mobile phone development. Four types of informal entrepreneurs with high social trust...