the perspective of transaction cost theory

Abstract—This study aims to examine the factors affecting knowledge sharing behavior in knowledge-based electronic communities (e-communities) because quantity and quality of knowledge shared among the members play a critical role in the community’s sustainability. Past research has suggested three perspectives that may affect the quantity and quality of knowledge shared: economics, social psychology, and social ecology. In this study, we strongly believe that an economic perspective may be suitable to validate factors influencing newly registered members’ knowledge contribution at the beginning of relationship development. Accordingly, this study proposes a model to validate the factors influencing members ’ knowledge sharing based on Transaction Cost Theory. By doing so, we may empirically test our hypotheses in various types of e-communities to determine the generalizability of our research models. Keywords—Electronic community, individual behavior, knowledge sharing, transaction cost theory. T I.

ABSTRACT This paper provides a comprehensive review of the empirical literature in transaction cost economics (TCE) across multiple social science disciplines and business fields. We show how TCE has branched out from its economic roots to examine empirical phenomena in several other areas. We find TCE is increasingly being applied not only to business-related fields such as accounting, finance, marketing, and organizational theory, but also to areas outside of business including political science, law, public policy, and agriculture and health. With few exceptions, however, the use of TCE reasoning to inform empirical research in these areas is piecemeal. We find that there is considerable support of many of the central tenets of TCE, but we also observe a number of lingering theoretical and empirical issues that need to be addressed. We conclude by discussing the implications of these issues and outlining directions for future theoretical and empirical work. We thank Erin Anderson, Scott Masten, Jackson Nickerson, Brian Silverman and especially Oliver Williamson for valuable comments and suggestions. Address all correspondence to Jeffrey Macher at the above email address. The authors are solely responsible for any errors and omissions

This paper investigates boundary decisions that determine governance structures, particularly intermediaries and external contractors, for executing the primary functions of procurement, sales, and information technology support functions in the value chain model. Utilizing data from 113 firms doing business on the Internet, the findings indicate that firm resources have a significant impact on decisions to outsource or internalize electronic value chain functions. Specifically, firms with a greater reliance on sales intermediaries were found to deploy fewer technical e-commerce resources than firms less dependent on sales intermediaries. Moreover, the number of intermediary procurement functions was positively related to investment in web-based human resources. The results also suggest that firms experiencing lower levels of transaction frequency utilize more types of Internet sales methods.

Trust is a construct studied by a growing number of disciplines that, in time, following a natural process of convergence, have increasingly featured the multidisciplinarity of studies. To fully appreciate the increasing multidisciplinarity of trust literature, a review of the major research areas from the different disciplines has been done. This in order to understand two elements: (1) the major relational contexts studied by each discipline as well as their analytical goals; (2) the contribution that they can offer to define a general interpretative model of trust in market relations discussed in the last part of the paper. 1.

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In a survey of 196 buyer–supplier relationships in the UK printing industry, eight constructs regarding performance, trust and governance were operationalised. The paper presents the results of a correlation analysis and a cluster analysis. Both yield meaningful results, but the typology of supplier relations obtained by cluster analysis gives more pluralistic and practically relevant insights than the deterministic findings of correlation analysis. Buyers are classified as one of three types: traditional wary traders, committed flexible partners or controlled routine partners. There is a significant positive correlation between performance and trust, of which variance in governance is independent. Implications for management and further research are discussed.

Word Count 8866 (excluding references) 2 Information about the authors D. Ross Brennan is a principal lecturer in marketing and chairperson of the marketing group at Middlesex University Business School, London, UK. Prior to entering the academic profession, he obtained industrial marketing experience with British Telecommunications PLC. His research and teaching interests focus on business-to-business marketing, and on the application of academic research to marketing practice. Dr. Brennan's work has appeared in

Innovation generation has increasingly been recognized as an outcome of interaction between a firm and various outside entities. According to this view, supplier involvement and alliances are routes to innovation generation. Despite this realization, there is a dearth of research, both conceptual and empirical, focusing on innovation generation in buyer-seller relationships in supply chains. In an attempt to fill this void, this article develops a conceptual model of innovation generation in buyer-seller relationships in upstream supply chains. The authors propose that innovation generation in supply chain relationships, both incremental and radical, is a consequence of interactions between buyers and sellers. They also delineate factors internal and external to the relationship that moderate the link between interaction and innovation generation. Finally, the authors discuss managerial implications of their research and offer guidelines for future empirical research. Keywords: supply chain; innovation; new product development; buyer-seller interaction; knowledge-based; business-to-business