A systematic assessment of the empirical support for transaction cost economics

Abstract

Transaction cost economics (TCE) is one of the leading perspectives in management and organizational studies, yet debate continues regarding its empirical support. In this paper, we take stock of the large body of extant research and provide a systematic assessment of empirical evidence. In all, 308 statistical tests from 63 articles, selected according to a set of clear criteria, were examined across various dimensions. We assess not only the level of empirical support for the theory, but also the degree of paradigm consensus present in the empirical literature. Our analysis shows that results are mixed: while we found support in some areas (e.g., with regard to asset specificity), we also found considerable disagreement on how to operationalize some of TCE's central constructs and propositions, and relatively low levels of empirical support in other core areas (e.g., surrounding uncertainty and performance). We conclude that a more thorough empirical grounding of the theory's foundation is crucial to its future development, and offer several strategies for doing this. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Purchasing Organization and Design: A Literature Review

“…Synthesizing existing evidence in a systematic and transparent way is an effective tool in the building of knowledge, and can be as important as conducting new research (Light and Pillemer 1984: 2-3;Cooper 2010: 1-2). The methodology used in the literature review was developed with reference to the works of Reynolds, Simintiras, and Vlachou (2003) David and Han (2004) and Newbert (2007) and consists of three steps:…”

Sourcing of internal auditing: An empirical study

“…Thus, TCE's standard position is that uncertainty reinforces the effect of asset specificity (cf. Boerner & Macher, 2002;David & Han, 2004): when asset specificity is present to a non-trivial degree, uncertainty tilts the balance in favour of internalization at lower levels of asset specificity than would otherwise be required to result in a preference for in-house sourcing. Conversely, if asset specificity is low, higher uncertainty strengthens the motivation to outsource.…”

Short-term versus long-term benefits: Balanced sustainability framework and research propositions

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