Holding Distribution Channel Relationships Together: The Role of Transaction-Specific Assets and Length of Prior Relationship

Allen M. Weiss and Nancy Kurland
Additional contact information
Allen M. Weiss: Department of Marketing, Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90089-1421
Nancy Kurland: Department of Management and Organization, Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90089-1421

Organization Science, 1997, vol. 8, issue 6, 612-623

Abstract: The authors investigate the effect of managers' perceptions of two types of transaction-specific investments on their intention to terminate a current interorganizational relationship: (1) the specific knowledge necessary for a manufacturer's representative (rep) to carry out the selling function for a given manufacturer and (2) the specific knowledge reps acquire about their own customer accounts. The extent to which the length of prior relationship strengthens or weakens the hypothesized linkages is also examined. The authors test the hypotheses within the context of distribution channels (i.e., between a manufacturer and its selling agent), which are characteristic of many vertical organizational relationships. The results replicate in an additional setting some prior findings on the influence of transaction-specific investments between two parties directly involved in a relationship. The authors also find that specialized investments by a downstream partner (i.e., a manufacturer's rep) in relationships that are even farther downstream (i.e., customer accounts) can influence a manufacturer's intention to terminate the manufacturer-rep relationship. Moreover, the length of prior relationship between a manufacturer and its rep is shown to moderate this effect.

Keywords: transaction cost theory; interorganizational relationships; trust (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1997
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/orsc.8.6.612 (application/pdf)

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:inm:ororsc:v:8:y:1997:i:6:p:612-623

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Organization Science from INFORMS Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Asher ().