On the Same Page? How Asymmetric Buyer–Supplier Relationships Affect Opportunism and Performance

Abstract

Research on buyer–supplier relationships (BSRs) has often focused on only one side of the relationship and, thus, has tended to overlook asymmetries. Yet, a buyer (supplier) may often deal with a bigger supplier (buyer) or one that has higher levels of trust, respect, and reciprocity. Therefore, we examined how two types of asymmetries—size and relational capital—affect perceived opportunism and performance. We used dyadic data from 106 buyers and their matched suppliers gathered from a survey and an archival database. The results demonstrate that the degree and direction of both asymmetries affect the BSR. Our results also reveal that an imbalance of relational capital in a firm's favor may have the opposite effect from that intended. In other words, the firm's counterpart perceives more, rather than less, firm opportunism. The results also suggest that a buyer observes lower benefits in the presence of size asymmetry, whereas the supplier's perception of benefits is unaffected. Thus, our research represents a significant step forward in understanding BSRs and asymmetries by (i) bringing attention to two key asymmetries inherent in BSRs and (ii) showing that these asymmetries are not unidirectional in their influence on perceived opportunism and performance.

Unintended Consequences: How Suppliers Compensate for Price Concessions and the Role of Organizational Justice in Buyer‐Supplier Relations

“…It is also worth pointing out that the results from this research serve as a unique corollary to the research on power dynamics as extant research has explored different power levels inherent in the relationship (Villena and Craighead ), whereas this study explores the outcomes related to the application of power, in the form of price concessions granted by suppliers. In other words, rather than studying the conditions of power/dependency dynamics, which can lead to different relational outcomes and potential inequity, this manuscript explores the implications for when the buyer wields power and how suppliers respond to the use of such power in different conditions.…”

“…Additionally, such inequities can create power imbalances, which have been shown to negatively affect the relationship between parties (Nyaga et al. ) and lead to perceived opportunistic behavior (Villena and Craighead ). Expanding on the above, it has also been shown that such dependence can significantly affect the relationship between trust and resource allocation (Pulles et al.…”

Hold Back or Held Back? The Roles of Constraint Mitigation and Exchange Diffusion on Power “Nonuse” in Buyer–Supplier Exchanges

“…For example, in the context of buyer-supplier asymmetries such as size, relational capital, or commitment (cf. Villena & Craighead, 2016), we believe exchange diffusion could alter asymmetry's effects as illustrated in Figure 2 (relative to power). Thus, we make a broad call to examine exchange diffusion in light of various IOR issues.…”

Achieving Research Design Excellence Through the Pursuit of Perfection: Toward Strong Theoretical Calibration

“…Likewise, as scholars target multiple respondents (Roh et al., ), they may find there are significant differences in perceptions of the same supply chain phenomenon (cf. the nascent, but growing research on supply chain asymmetries—Villena & Craighead, ). More broadly, we believe that the pursuit of strong theoretical calibration can yield much more theoretical richness than captured in the past and perhaps allow the field to more fully develop our own body of knowledge—wisdom that we can more confidently disseminate to managers.…”