Purpose

The purpose of this study is to examine tolerance of channel partners’ opportunistic behaviors as a viable governance mechanism and to test contingent transaction benefit and cost factors to determine tolerance of opportunistic behaviors.

Design/methodology/approach

Through the theoretical lenses of governance value analysis and transaction cost economics, this study theorizes that a supplier’s tolerance of its reseller’s opportunistic behaviors should depend on transaction benefit factors (e.g. new product creativity and marketing program creativity) and transaction cost factors (e.g. performance ambiguity and opportunity cost). The author empirically tests the moderation model using data from a large-scale survey of 141 mobile phone suppliers in South Korea.

Findings

The empirical results largely support the predictions on the moderating effects. For transaction benefit factors, marketing program creativity increases the supplier’s tolerance, while new product creativity does not increase the supplier’s tolerance. For transaction cost factors, the supplier’s concerns about opportunity cost increase the level of tolerance, while performance ambiguity of a business partner decreases the tolerance level.

Research limitations/implications

Theorizing opportunistic behaviors as a policy variable subject to benefit-cost assessment rather than an assumption provides new insights to interfirm governance research.

Originality/value

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is the first kind to consider transaction benefit and cost factors together in a single contingency framework in tolerance research. Also, this research provides a new perspective on a microlevel marketing factor (i.e. creativity) as an influential factor in governance mechanisms.

中文翻译：

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供应商何时容忍经销商的机会主义行为？：交易收益和成本观点

目的

本研究的目的是将渠道合作伙伴的机会主义行为容忍度作为一种可行的治理机制，并测试或有交易收益和成本因素以确定对机会主义行为的容忍度。

设计/方法/方法

通过治理价值分析和交易成本经济学的理论视角，本研究认为供应商对其经销商机会主义行为的容忍度应取决于交易利益因素（例如新产品创造力和营销计划创造力）和交易成本因素（例如绩效模糊和机会成本）。作者使用来自韩国 141 家手机供应商的大规模调查数据，对调节模型进行了实证检验。

发现

实证结果在很大程度上支持了对调节效应的预测。对于交易效益因素，营销方案创意增加了供应商的容忍度，而新产品创意并没有增加供应商的容忍度。对于交易成本因素，供应商对机会成本的关注提高了容忍度，而业务伙伴的绩效模糊性降低了容忍度。

研究限制/影响

将机会主义行为理论化为受收益-成本评估而非假设的政策变量，为公司间治理研究提供了新的见解。

原创性/价值

据作者所知，本研究是第一种在单一权变框架中同时考虑交易收益和成本因素的容忍研究。此外，这项研究为微观层面的营销因素（即创造力）作为治理机制的影响因素提供了新的视角。