IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/mgtdec/v28y2007i8p833-847.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Trust and formal contracts in interorganizational relationships - substitutes and complements

Author

Listed:
  • Thomas Mellewigt

    (Freie Universität Berlin, Institute for Management, Berlin, Germany)

  • Anoop Madhok
  • Antoinette Weibel

    (University of Zurich, Institute of Organization and Administrative Science, Zürich, Switzerland)

Abstract

We hypothesize that trust is a moderator of the direct relationship between control and coordination concerns and contractual complexity. Our results suggest that high trust weakens the positive relationship between control concerns and contractual complexity and reinforces the positive relationship between coordination concerns and contractual complexity. By highlighting the dual role of contracts (i.e. a controlling and coordinating function) and the moderating role of trust in this regard, our paper provides a new focus to the current discussion on the relationship between trust and contracts (i.e. substitutes or complements) that may help reconcile some divergent perspectives in the literature. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas Mellewigt & Anoop Madhok & Antoinette Weibel, 2007. "Trust and formal contracts in interorganizational relationships - substitutes and complements," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(8), pages 833-847.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:mgtdec:v:28:y:2007:i:8:p:833-847
    DOI: 10.1002/mde.1321
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1002/mde.1321
    File Function: Link to full text; subscription required
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/mde.1321?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Edward J. Zajac & Cyrus P. Olsen, 1993. "From Transaction Cost To Transactional Value Analysis: Implications For The Study Of Interorganizational Strategies," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 131-145, January.
    2. Jay B. Barney & Mark H. Hansen, 1994. "Trustworthiness as a Source of Competitive Advantage," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(S1), pages 175-190, December.
    3. Niederkofler, Martin, 1991. "The evolution of strategic alliances: Opportunities for managerial influence," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 6(4), pages 237-257, July.
    4. Keith J. Crocker & Kenneth J. Reynolds, 1993. "The Efficiency of Incomplete Contracts: An Empirical Analysis of Air Force Engine Procurement," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 24(1), pages 126-146, Spring.
    5. Lerner, Josh & Merges, Robert P, 1998. "The Control of Technology Alliances: An Empirical Analysis of the Biotechnology Industry," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(2), pages 125-156, June.
    6. Chen, Homin & Chen, Tain-Jy, 2003. "Governance structures in strategic alliances: transaction cost versus resource-based perspective," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 1-14, February.
    7. J. Carlos Jarillo, 1988. "On strategic networks," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 9(1), pages 31-41, January.
    8. Reuer, Jeffrey J. & Arino, Africa & Mellewigt, Thomas, 2006. "Entrepreneurial alliances as contractual forms," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 306-325, May.
    9. Dekker, Henri C., 2004. "Control of inter-organizational relationships: evidence on appropriation concerns and coordination requirements," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 27-49, January.
    10. Siegwart Lindenberg, 2000. "It Takes Both Trust and Lack of Mistrust: The Workings of Cooperation and Relational Signaling in Contractual Relationships," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 4(1), pages 11-33, March.
    11. Lyons, Bruce R, 1996. "Empirical Relevance of Efficient Contract Theory: Inter-firm Contracts," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 12(4), pages 27-52, Winter.
    12. Josh Lerner & Robert P. Merges, 1998. "The Control of Technology Alliances: An Empirical Analysis of the Biotechnology Industry," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(2), pages 125-156, June.
    13. Scott E. Masten & Stéphane Saussier, 2000. "Econometrics of Contracts : an Assessment of Developments in the Empirical Literature on Contracting," Revue d'Économie Industrielle, Programme National Persée, vol. 92(1), pages 215-236.
    14. Nooteboom, B. & Berger, H. & Noorderhaven, N.G., 1997. "Effects of trust and governance on relational risk," Other publications TiSEM 8e83932e-064c-40e8-afe7-4, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    15. Saussier, Stephane, 2000. "Transaction costs and contractual incompleteness: the case of Electricite de France," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 189-206, June.
    16. Bello, Daniel C. & Lohtia, Ritu & Dant, Shirish P., 1999. "Collaborative Relationships for Component Development: The Role of Strategic Issues, Production Costs, and Transaction Costs," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 15-31, May.
    17. Masaaki Kotabe & Xavier Martin & Hiroshi Domoto, 2003. "Gaining from vertical partnerships: knowledge transfer, relationship duration, and supplier performance improvement in the U.S. and Japanese automotive industries," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(4), pages 293-316, April.
    18. T. K. Das & Bing‐Sheng Teng, 1996. "Risk Types And Inter‐Firm Alliance Structures," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(6), pages 827-843, November.
    19. Kyle J. Mayer & Nicholas S. Argyres, 2004. "Learning to Contract: Evidence from the Personal Computer Industry," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 15(4), pages 394-410, August.
    20. Foss, Nicolai & Mahnke, Volker (ed.), 2000. "Competence, Governance, and Entrepreneurship: Advances in Economic Strategy Research," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198297178.
    21. Klein, Benjamin & Crawford, Robert G & Alchian, Armen A, 1978. "Vertical Integration, Appropriable Rents, and the Competitive Contracting Process," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 21(2), pages 297-326, October.
    22. Tomkins, Cyril, 2001. "Interdependencies, trust and information in relationships, alliances and networks," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 161-191, March.
    23. Joskow, Paul L, 1987. "Contract Duration and Relationship-Specific Investments: Empirical Evidence from Coal Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 77(1), pages 168-185, March.
    24. repec:ucp:bkecon:9780226316529 is not listed on IDEAS
    25. Foss, Nicolai J, 1997. "On the Rationales of Corporate Headquarters," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 6(2), pages 313-338, March.
    26. Klein Woolthuis, R. & Nooteboom, B., 2002. "Trust and Formal Control in interorganizational Relationships," ERIM Report Series Research in Management ERS-2002-13-ORG, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Marco Furlotti, 2007. "There is more to contracts than incompleteness: a review and assessment of empirical research on inter-firm contract design," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 11(1), pages 61-99, March.
    2. Jochen Schweitzer, 2016. "How Contracts And Culture Mediate Joint Transactions Of Innovation Partnerships," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 20(01), pages 1-33, January.
    3. George Hendrikse & Patrick Hippmann & Josef Windsperger, 2015. "Trust, transaction costs and contractual incompleteness in franchising," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 44(4), pages 867-888, April.
    4. Reuer, Jeffrey J. & Arino, Africa & Mellewigt, Thomas, 2006. "Entrepreneurial alliances as contractual forms," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 306-325, May.
    5. Lumineau, Fabrice & Henderson, James, 2012. "The influence of relational experience and contractual governance on the negotiation strategy in buyer-supplier disputes," MPRA Paper 38510, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Delbufalo, Emanuela, 2015. "Subjective trust and perceived risk influences on exchange performance in supplier–manufacturer relationships," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 84-101.
    7. Fang, F., 2019. "When performance shortfall arises, contract or trust? A multi-method study of the impact of contractual and relational governances on performance in public – private partnerships," Other publications TiSEM 473840ee-6945-4a93-9326-5, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    8. López-Bayón, Susana & González-Díaz, Manuel, 2010. "Indefinite contract duration: Evidence from electronics subcontracting," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 145-159, June.
    9. Kim, Jongwook & Mahoney, Joseph T., 2008. "A Strategic Theory of the Firm as a Nexus of Incomplete Contracts: A Property Rights Approach," Working Papers 08-0108, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, College of Business.
    10. Reuer, Jeffrey J. & Ariño, Africa, 2003. "Alliance dynamics for entrepreneurial firms," IESE Research Papers D/526, IESE Business School.
    11. Ranjay Gulati & Maxim Sytch, 2008. "Does familiarity breed trust? Revisiting the antecedents of trust," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(2-3), pages 165-190.
    12. Lumineau, Fabrice & Frechet, Marc & Puthod, Dominique, 2011. "An organizational learning perspective on contract design," MPRA Paper 38360, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Michael D. Ryall & Rachelle C. Sampson, 2009. "Formal Contracts in the Presence of Relational Enforcement Mechanisms: Evidence from Technology Development Projects," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 55(6), pages 906-925, June.
    14. Reuer, Jeffrey J. & Ariño, Africa, 2002. "Contractual heterogeneity in strategic alliances," IESE Research Papers D/482, IESE Business School.
    15. Malhotra, Deepak & Lumineau, Fabrice, 2011. "Trust and collaboration in the aftermath of conflict: the effects of contract structure," MPRA Paper 38358, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Tugba GURCAYLILAR YENIDOGAN & Alp YENIDOGAN, 2013. "Sozlesme Tasarimi: Tur Operatoru-Otel Kontenjan Sozlesmeleri," Ege Academic Review, Ege University Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, vol. 13(3), pages 393-403.
    17. Mark H. Hansen & Robert E. Hoskisson & Jay B. Barney, 2008. "Competitive advantage in alliance governance: resolving the opportunism minimization-gain maximization paradox," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(2-3), pages 191-208.
    18. Sarmento, Joaquim Miranda & Renneboog, Luc, 2021. "Renegotiating public-private partnerships," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    19. M'Hand Farès & Stéphane Saussier, 2002. "Coûts de transaction et contrats incomplets," Revue Française d'Économie, Programme National Persée, vol. 16(3), pages 193-230.
    20. Peter G. Klein, 2010. "Vertical Integration," Chapters, in: Peter G. Klein & Michael E. Sykuta (ed.), The Elgar Companion to Transaction Cost Economics, chapter 17, Edward Elgar Publishing.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:mgtdec:v:28:y:2007:i:8:p:833-847. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jhome/7976 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.