The bright side of dependence asymmetry: Mitigating power use and facilitating relational ties

Baofeng Huo, Ruolei Liu and Min Tian

International Journal of Production Economics, 2022, vol. 251, issue C

Abstract: Dependence asymmetry may trigger firms' common-interest orientation and suppress their self-interest seeking, thus generating positive effects on firms' behaviors in buyer–supplier relationships (BSRs). To further demonstrate the positive role and influencing mechanism of dependence asymmetry, we examine the impact of dependence asymmetry on buyer's use of power and relational ties. We also explore the moderating role of buyer's psychological contract fulfillment (PCF). We test the proposed relationships using polynomial regression and the response surface analysis based on data collected from 200 Chinese manufacturers. The results indicate that dependence asymmetry negatively affects buyer's use of power and positively influences relational ties directly and indirectly through decreasing buyer's use of power. Moreover, buyer's PCF negatively moderates the effect of dependence asymmetry on buyer's use of power and the indirect effect of dependence asymmetry on relational ties. This study contributes to dependence literature by identifying the bright side of dependence asymmetry and validating the mechanism of how dependence asymmetry influences behavioral outcome and relational factor. This study also enriches the literature on psychological contract by demonstrating the significant role of PCF in the context of interfirm relationships. Our findings provide insightful guidelines for firms to better understand interdependence structure and take appropriate actions when facing different interdependence structures.

Keywords: Dependence asymmetry; Dependence symmetry; Use of power; Relational ties; Psychological contract fulfillment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0925527322001359
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:proeco:v:251:y:2022:i:c:s0925527322001359

DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpe.2022.108542

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Production Economics is currently edited by Stefan Minner

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