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1. Introduction
According to statistics, 75 per cent of corporate entrepreneurship ends up in failure (Bernardo and Welch, 2001). This would not only cause substantial waste of resources, but also lead to severe consequences to the companies. The causes of entrepreneurial failure have been attributed to both external economic factor and many internal factors. Among these, the entrepreneurial network problem undoubtedly constitutes an important factor; that is, in the entrepreneurial process, some companies always construct their entrepreneurial network and corresponding internal relations from a static personal social network perspective. For instance, currently, many Chinese firms or entrepreneurs put their emphasis on the affective relations among individuals in the entrepreneurial network, regardless of the development stage of their entrepreneurial network.
Corporate entrepreneurship relies on entrepreneurial networks to obtain resources and opportunities from resource providers (Hoang and Antoncic, 2003; Smith and Lohrke, 2008). Entrepreneurial network builds on the relation network among various stakeholders. Consequently, it is quite important for companies embedded in entrepreneurial networks to maintain good relationships with various stakeholders (Katz and Gartner, 1988; Sirmon et al., 2007). Trust, as the basis for network organization to operate, has received much attention in organization studies, and maintaining good trust relationships among stakeholders inside the entrepreneurial network is essential for gaining resources to guarantee entrepreneurial success (Aldrich and Fiol, 1994; Das and Teng, 1998; Jack and Anderson, 2002). Despite the importance of trust, research is limited regarding how trust evolves in entrepreneurial networks, no matter in the research field of entrepreneurial networks or organizational trust (Smith and Lohrke, 2008).
Entrepreneurial networks are not static (Greve and Salaff, 2003; Hite and Hesterly, 2001). Their structures, shapes and relationships vary with changes in strategies and environments (Hite, 2005; Larson and Starr, 1993). As entrepreneurial networks evolve, trust basically transforms from affective trust to cognitive trust (Smith and Lohrke, 2008). However, prior studies have failed to explain how trust evolves in entrepreneurial networks and what factors may play important roles in the process. Undoubtedly, there are various deeper forces and mechanisms influencing the evolution of trust, and it may be difficult to identify them. For example, one important aspect is corporate governance. Corporate governance involves the governance of relationships with stakeholders, which may facilitate the evolution from affective trust to...