Shared Trust in New Zealand provides a social science perspective on the development challenges facing small developed economies and New Zealand's distinctiveness among small industrial countries. Trade openness and a reliance of comparatively low technology industries are shown to be typical of small countries. Unusually high degrees of trust and cooperation between business managers have been suggested as a principal way that small industrial countries sustain their competitiveness. That claim comes from the experience of Nordic small economies. Investigation of New Zealand's business community indicates that similar 'shared trust' does not exist here. Explaining why business cooperation is weak, how this affects competitiveness and what should be done to strengthen industry cooperation are discussed. This investigation argues that if attention is given to those three issues, then New Zealand can seek to match the economic success of other small industrial countries.