No abstract

No abstract

Cross-border business relationships often involve significant risk because they entail greater information asymmetry and complexity to manage collaboration than domestic relationships. Yet, little is known about the contractual design of such relationships. We examine a prominent form of cross-border collaboration − firms' strategic outsourcing in a host country where they operate − and contrast contracting choices with those made for similar home country relations. We collect survey data from Japanese subsidiaries operating and outsourcing in the Netherlands, and from Japanese firms outsourcing in Japan. Results show that contract complexity does not differ between similar home and host country relationships; however, consistent with our hypotheses, host country contracts have a shorter duration, more renewal provisions, less flexibility, and relatively greater contracting costs.

Purpose – The paper aims to describe the changes in buyer-supplier relationships among Japanese companies at the early 2000s, focusing on two critical features; long-term relationships and information sharing. In particular, the paper investigates the relationship between benefits from information-sharing activities within buyer-supplier relationships and the stability of these relationships. Design/methodology/approach – The paper develops a questionnaire based on prior research related to Japanese companies and undertakes a questionnaire survey of 353 Japanese manufacturing companies (which belong to the machinery, electrical/electronics, transportation equipment, and precision industries) in 2002. Findings – Although Japanese companies have been considered to have close relationships with their partners, the paper finds only a small proportion of buyers were willing to share sensitive information with their suppliers and/or expected to continue long-term relationships with them. In addition, an examination of factors relating to buyers' performance shows that receiving benefits from inter-organizational information-sharing activities (attending suppliers' meetings, sending engineers to suppliers, and proposing cost saving ideas) could affect buyers' incentives to sustain long-term relationships with their suppliers. Originality/value – The paper provides empirical evidence of the changing nature of the buyer-supplier relationship in Japanese manufacturing companies. Specifically, the main contribution of this research is to provide empirical evidence indicating that the benefit from buyer-supplier relationships has an effect on the governance structure of these relationships.

We examine how firms' management accounting information influences interfirm contract design. We theorize that comprehensive accounting information enables firms to design more complete contracts with suppliers, as indicated by increased issue inclusiveness and clause specificity. Survey data of Japanese manufacturing firms about the management of supplier relationships support the expectation that comprehensive management accounting information enables the development of more inclusive and specific contracts with suppliers. These contracts are also less subject to additional informal agreements between exchange partners. These results are consistent with the idea that better accounting information enables more complete contracting.