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...

By introducing asymmetric information of investors' abilities and finitely repeated games into the classic hold-up model, this paper revisits the relationship between property rights and reputation under incomplete contracting environment and obtains some different insights. First, even facing...

Guest editors' introduction of a special issue dedicated to advancing understanding of how a firm's reputation is influenced by the actions of other firms and advancing methods of managing this interdependence. It introduces the topic of reputational interdependence, summarizes the five articles...

We analyze price patterns at franchised and corporate-owned McDonald's outlets in 1999 and 2006 and find that prices at franchised outlets were higher than those at corporate outlets. The price difference between franchised and corporate outlets decreased between 1999 and 2006 but only for items...

This paper formulates a positive model that predicts when parties will employ private ordering to enforce their agreements. The typical enforcement mechanism associated with private ordering is the reputation mechanism, when a merchant community punishes parties in breach of contract by denying...

This paper studies the interaction of information disclosure and reputational concerns in certification markets. We argue that by revealing less precise information a certifier reduces the threat of capture. Opaque disclosure rules may reduce profits but also constrain feasible bribes. For large...

How do markets spread risk when events are unknown or unknowable and where not anticipated in an insurance contract? While the policyholder can 'hold up' the insurer for extra contractual payments, the continuing gains from trade on a single contract are often too small to yield useful coverage....

We address the question how much authority a principal should delegate to a manager with conflicting interests and uncertain ability in a context in which the manager has both compensationbased and reputational incentives. The optimal level of authority balances the value of the manager's...

Is the reputation of a firm tradable when the change in ownership is observable? We consider a competitive market in which a share of owners must retire in each period. New owners bid for the firms that are for sale. Customers learn the owner's type, which reflects the quality of the good or...