ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the ambivalent attitudes toward networking among rural entrepreneurs in Finland. It examines the problem of trust and confidence. The chapter explains the different benefits of flexibility sought through networking. It provides a short overview of the problem of trust in flexible business networks. It also explains the interpretation of the author's qualitative data. The positive dimension of individualization is the increased degree of freedom to act independently. The eroding of confidence, and desire for independence, also influence their attitudes towards networking. At the margins of the network economy, in remote rural areas, especially, the erosion of the entrepreneurs' confidence and trust is quite evident. Along the vertical dimension there is the continuum of confidence, which depends on one's position in any known abstract system, such as an industrial network. The chapter suggests that in rural areas it is not the lack of trust but confidence that prevents entrepreneurs from engaging themselves in networks and joint enterprises.
