Entrepreneurial business firms such as franchisors can enhance their network performance by attracting high-quality partners and preventing low-quality partners from joining the network. We draw on agency and transaction cost theories and the substantive literature on voluntary information...

Empirical studies of commercial relationships between firms reveal that (i) suppliers encounter situations in which they can gain in the short run by acting opportunistically---for example, delivering a lower quality than promised after being paid; and (ii) good conduct is sustained not...

This paper is interested in the analysis of Blockchains and Smart-contracts applied to inter-firms relationships, in particular the franchise networks. After defining the Blockchain technology and the Smart-contract as a particular type of contract stored in blockchains, we question the theory...

Prior empirical studies suggest repeated exchange develops increasing value in buyer-supplier relationships. A first order implication of this finding is that buyers will concentrate exchange among a relatively small number of suppliers to generate maximum value in relationships. However, buyers...

Relationships and networks are commonly understood to play an important role in firms' internationalization. With this proposition in mind, this paper investigates the link between domestic business-to-business ties and firm internationalization in a sample of 502 small and medium-sized...

In this paper, we use Bayesian estimation to study subcontracting network formation and pricing decisions in the US airline industry. We find that, a major carrier is more likely to enter a route in subcontracting services if its rivals have already subcontracted while regional carriers prefer...

Whereas in some industries retailers distribute the products of all suppliers, in other industries they differentiate themselves from their rivals by becoming the exclusive distributors of some products, which results in incomplete distribution networks. To study this phenomenon, I analyze a...

This paper develops a model of relational contracting to help explain the prevalence of multiunit franchising; a phenomenon not fully understood in the literature. The model is used to derive a key prediction, which is that franchise systems with a greater propensity to engage in multiunit...

This paper presents new evidence on the role of embeddedness in predicting contract duration in the context of Information Technology (IT) Outsourcing. Contract duration is a strategic decision that aligns interests of clients and vendors, providing the benefits of business continuity to clients...