Always trust in old friends? Effects of reciprocity in bilateral asset specificity on trust in international B2B partnerships

Abstract

Grounded in Social Exchange Theory (SET), this study is motivated by two unresolved issues. First, scholars find mixed results on how relationship duration facilitates business-to-business (B2B) trust. The lack of consensus results from the assumption that relationship duration is a measure of prior trust-building efforts. We contend that trust-building lies in exchanges between B2B partners, and relationship duration moderates the effects of reciprocal exchanges. Second, although Transaction Cost Analysis (TCA) is one of the most used theoretical lens in the study of B2B trust, TCA is criticized for neglecting the exchange process in B2B trust-building. To provide clarity to these issues, we empirically validate that bilateral asset specificity constitutes social exchange processes, which communicate goodwill reciprocity and equivalence reciprocity. Empirical findings suggest that, within bilateral asset specificity: (1) achieving goodwill reciprocity always enhances trust, regardless of the duration contingency; and (2) violating equivalence reciprocity 2 impairs trust over the duration.

Da Congruência De Valor Entre Boundary Spanners À Satisfação Em Mercados B2b: Uma Perspectiva Teórica

“…Mesmo que haja muitas pesquisas recentes que continuam estudando os relacionamentos B2B (Bocconcelli, Murmura, & Pagano, 2018;Liu, Deligonul, Cavusgil & Chiou, 2018;Lussier & Hall, 2018), assim como os valores humanos pessoais (Torres et al, 2016;Ahmad & Omar, 2018;Frendika, Sule, Kusman & Joeliaty, 2018) ou a satisfação (Ferro et al, 2016;Ha et al, 2016;Mpinganjira et al, 2017), poucos estudiosos abordam esses temas de forma unificada (Ellegaard, 2012;Kashyap & Sivadas, 2012;Bawa, 2016), conforme foi apresentado.…”

Stakeholders\' relationships as microfoundation of open innovation: perspective of brazilian companies

“…Therefore, the reciprocity rule refers to a set of socially accepted rules concerning a transaction, establishing that a party, when extending a resource to another, obliges the latter to return the favor (Gouldner, 1960;Pervan, Bove, & Johnson, 2009). This is a situation "in which a person is expected to cooperate with individuals who have done something for that person first" (Goldstein, Griskevicius, & Cialdini, 2007, p.147), thus reflecting the individuals' involvement in mutual recognition and in the reaction to the other person's action, which adds interactional and bilateral dimensions (Liu et al, 2018;Martinez, 2019).…”

“…Critical characteristics of reciprocity are highlighted in Illustration 5. As noted, this term is a multifaceted and complex concept (Hoppner & Griffith, 2011;Liu et al, 2018;Pervan, Bove, & Johsnon, 2009;Swärd, 2016).…”

“…The various characteristics of reciprocity point to the need for a first move, perceived as friendly, legitimate, and desirable by stakeholders, given that reciprocity is a friendly or unfriendly response to the behavior received (Hahn, 2015). In this process of exchanging positive behaviors, reciprocity emerges through two components: the first is goodwill reciprocity; the second is the equivalence of contributions (Liu et al, 2018).…”

“…Thus, in order to obtain relationships that have a positive reciprocity component, this research considers goodwill reciprocity as the company's first reciprocity movement concerning its stakeholders. Goodwill reciprocity refers to the mutually contingent exchange of gratifications and actions that can be interpreted by the stakeholders as signs of goodwill (Liu et al, 2018;Swärd, 2016), as elements that can be represented by the tangible and intangible resources provided by the organization (Harrison, Bosse, & Phillips, 2010;Harrison & Bosse, 2013;Tantalo & Priem, 2016).…”