By combining the theoretical lenses of social embeddedness, agency problem, and inter-firm relationship formation, this study investigates the impact of focal firms' inter-firm managerial social ties (IMST) on the firms' selection of IT suppliers and the consequences of such IT supplier...

We show that prior social connections can mitigate hold-up in bilateral relationships and encourage relation-specific investment and cooperation when contracts are incomplete. We examine vertical relationships and show that relation-specific innovative activities by suppliers increase with the...

We model a dual-channel supply chain consisting of one manufacturer and one retailer, and consider two scenarios — under one scenario the manufacturer solely provides the information service and under the other the retailer solely provides the information service. Both the manufacturer's and...