Transaction Cost Theory and International Business

Jean-Francois Hennart

Journal of Retailing, 2010, vol. 86, issue 3, 257-269

Abstract: I discuss the cross-fertilization between transaction cost theory (TCT) and international business (IB), showing how TCT provides a powerful lens to study the institutions that organize international interdependencies, and especially multinational enterprises (MNEs). I then discuss some of the insights that IB can provide for the further development of TCT. I argue that a full explanation of why MNEs exist must rely on information asymmetry as well as asset specificity, and that the study of modes of foreign market entry leads to alternative viewpoints on equity joint ventures and hybrids. I conclude by stressing the need for a simultaneous consideration of market transaction costs and internal organization costs when examining governance choices.

Keywords: Transaction cost theory; International business; Multinational enterprises; Global value chains; Hybrids; Equity joint ventures (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (39)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022435910000552
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:jouret:v:86:y:2010:i:3:p:257-269

DOI: 10.1016/j.jretai.2010.07.009

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Retailing is currently edited by A. Roggeveen

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