When an interfirm relationship is ending: The dark side of managerial ties and relationship intimacy

Chuang Zhang, Nan Du and Xubing Zhang

Journal of Business Research, 2021, vol. 125, issue C, 227-238

Abstract: Close interfirm relationships have attracted considerable research attention because of their importance to firms’ performance. However, the literature focused on relationships at the formation and maintenance stages; studies of relationship dissolution are relatively scarce. Drawing on social exchange, social capital and relational governance theories, and transaction cost economics, this study investigates how destructive acts affect a firm’s intention to exit an exchange relationship and how this intention affects the firm’s opportunistic behavior. It also explores the roles of managerial ties (i.e., business ties and political ties) and relationship intimacy in moderating these effects. Analysis of data from 158 distributors in China shows that suppliers’ destructive acts tend to increase distributors’ exit intention. Business ties positively moderate this effect, but political ties do not. Moreover, a distributor’s exit intention is positively related to its opportunistic behavior, and relationship intimacy amplifies this effect. Theoretical and managerial implications of these results are discussed.

Keywords: Destructive acts; Business ties; Political ties; Exit intention; Opportunism; Relationship intimacy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296320308407
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:125:y:2021:i:c:p:227-238

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.12.011

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Business Research is currently edited by A. G. Woodside

More articles in Journal of Business Research from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().