<p>Researchers identify two types of organizational governance: unilateral governance and bilateral governance. Although interfirm governance is at the core of interfirm relationships, little research exists on mechanisms that strengthen the weak spots in the dynamics of interfirm governance and multiple governance structures. This study introduces the concept of interfirm benevolence, and attempts to enhance our understanding of the conditions under which buyers rely on interfirm governance. The results indicate that the interfirm governance practices of a buyer tend to produce higher levels of supplier performance when a supplier trusts in the benevolence of the buyer. Also, this study shows that when a benevolent buyer uses both unilateral and bilateral governance simultaneously, suppliers perform positively. </p>
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.