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Towards Reconciling Transaction Cost Economics and the Knowledge-based View of the Firm: The Context of Interfirm Collaborations

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  • Bruce Heiman
  • Jack Nickerson

Abstract

This paper presents a set of relationships that have the potential to reconcile the dispute between the knowledge-based view of the firm (KBV) and transaction cost economics (TCE). Several KBV scholars have argued that governance choice need rely only on bounded rationality and not on opportunism where TCE scholars maintain that both behavioural assumptions are needed to explain governance choice.We help to resolve part of the debate by developing an extension ofTCE to encompass certain knowledge-based attributes of transactions.We argue that high-levels of two knowledge transfer attributes - knowledge tacitness or problem solving complexity - lead to the adoption of the knowledge management practices - high-bandwidth channels or idiosyncratic communication codes - to economize on the cognitive limitations of man. It is these knowledge management practices that generate contracting hazards for whichTCE, and its attendant concern about opportunism, predicts equity-based collaborations are superior to non-equity-based collaborations.The linkages between knowledge transfer attributes, knowledge management practices, and governance choice add value via implications for managers which are not readily apparent from either theory alone.

Suggested Citation

  • Bruce Heiman & Jack Nickerson, 2002. "Towards Reconciling Transaction Cost Economics and the Knowledge-based View of the Firm: The Context of Interfirm Collaborations," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(1), pages 97-116.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:ijecbs:v:9:y:2002:i:1:p:97-116
    DOI: 10.1080/13571510110103001
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    Cited by:

    1. Soufiane Mezzourh & Walid A Nakara, 2009. "Governance and innovation : A Knowledge-based approach [La gouvernance de l'innovation : une approche par la connaissance]," Post-Print halshs-01955966, HAL.
    2. Foss, Nicolai J. & Pedersen, Torben, 2001. "The MNC as a Knowledge Structure: The Roles of Knowledge Sources and Organizational Instruments for Knowledge Creation and Transfer," Working Papers 12-2001, Copenhagen Business School, Department of International Economics and Management.
    3. Nicolai J. Foss & Kenneth Husted & Snejina Michailova, 2010. "Governing Knowledge Sharing in Organizations: Levels of Analysis, Governance Mechanisms, and Research Directions," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(3), pages 455-482, May.
    4. Li, Dan, 2013. "Multilateral R&D alliances by new ventures," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 241-260.
    5. Mai, Nhat Chi, 2018. "Valuing Social Capital: Shifting Strategies for Export Success of Vietnamese Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises," OSF Preprints rxjav, Center for Open Science.
    6. Nickerson, Jack A. & Yen, C. James & Mahoney, Joseph T., 2011. "Exploring the Problem-Finding and Problem-Solving Approach for Designing Organizations," Working Papers 11-0107, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, College of Business.
    7. A. Willem & M. Buelens, 2003. "Making Competencies Cross Business Unit Boundaries: The Interplay between Inter-Unit Coordination, Trust and Knowledge Transferability," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 03/176, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    8. Xiaohua Yang & Elly Ho & Artemis Chang, 2012. "Integrating the resource-based view and transaction cost economics in immigrant business performance," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 29(3), pages 753-772, September.
    9. Donato, Ronald, 2010. "Extending transaction cost economics: Towards a synthesised approach for analysing contracting in health care markets with experience from the Australian private sector," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(11), pages 1989-1996, December.
    10. Bruce A. Heiman & Jack A. Nickerson, 2004. "Empirical evidence regarding the tension between knowledge sharing and knowledge expropriation in collaborations," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(6-7), pages 401-420.
    11. Delmas, Magali & Marcus, Alfred, 2003. "Firms' Choice of Regulation Instruments to Reduce Pollution: A Tansaction Cost Approach," Research Papers 1806, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
    12. Claude Ménard, 2004. "The Economics of Hybrid Organizations," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 160(3), pages 345-376, September.
    13. Aaron K. Chatterji & Kira Fabrizio, 2012. "How Do Product Users Influence Corporate Invention?," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 23(4), pages 971-987, August.
    14. Cesaroni, Fabrizio & Duque, Lola C., 2010. "Marketing for technologies: S-D Logic and the Open Innovation paradigm," DEE - Working Papers. Business Economics. WB wb100702, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Departamento de Economía de la Empresa.
    15. Jack A. Nickerson & Todd R. Zenger, 2004. "A Knowledge-Based Theory of the Firm—The Problem-Solving Perspective," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 15(6), pages 617-632, December.
    16. Achim Hecker, 2009. "Determinanten von Offshore-Outsourcing-Aktivitäten im deutschen Mittelstand," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 61(6), pages 628-653, September.
    17. Nicolai J. Foss, 2013. "Knowledge governance: meaning, origins and implications," Chapters, in: Anna Grandori (ed.), Handbook of Economic Organization, chapter 4, Edward Elgar Publishing.
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