The Role of Agent Negotiation Behaviors in Buyer-Supplier Relationships

摘要

In the buyer-supplier relationship literature, firm-level factors such as dependence and relational norms are often linked to opportunism and relationship continuance. The role of the decision-making agent in such relationships is usually ignored. In this study, we investigate the role of agent negotiation characteristics in buyer-supplier relationships. Through an experimental research approach, we find that after controlling for two major firm-level factors, dependence and relational norms, the assertiveness and cooperativeness of decision-making agents has a significant impact on opportunism in the existing dyad, but not on relationship continuance. The results also suggest that agent cooperative-ness potentially has a negative effect on opportunism in low relational norm situations but not in high relational norm situations, regardless of the degree of dependence between firms. Contrastingly, agent assertiveness has a marginal positive effect on opportunism in the low dependence-high relational norm situation. These findings encourage future research to further investigate the role of agent-level factors in influencing various outcomes of buyer-supplier relationships.