| Transaction cost economics, which focuses on the efficiency of alternative governance structures, has become a prominent theory in marketing channels research. Transaction cost research, however, has been criticized for taking a strictly microeconomic approach to governance. Microeconomic approaches to the study of marketing channels fail to consider the various social processes that occur as a product moves from its point of origin to the end consumer. To address this criticism, this research develops and examines empirically a research model integrating organizational justice and transaction cost theories. The research model proposes that perceived justice moderates the relationship between transaction specific investments and active and passive opportunism.; By examining an integrative framework, this research attempts to address the following research questions: (1) Does perceived justice mitigate opportunism in exchange relationships characterized by transaction specific investments? Alternatively, does perceived injustice exacerbate opportunism when transaction specific investments have been made? (2) Do specific investments and perceived justice have differential effects on active versus passive opportunism? Three dimensions of justice are examined---distributive, procedural and interactional justice. Distributive justice focuses on the fairness of the outcomes received in an exchange, and procedural justice focuses on the fairness of procedures used in the allocation process. Interactional justice, in contrast, focuses on the fairness of the interpersonal treatment and information provided in the allocation process.; The research setting for this study is the Norwegian consumer electronics retail industry. Data were collected from 120 retail store managers. The findings from this study indicate specific investments are related positively to passive opportunism. Interactional justice moderates this positive relationship. Specifically, interactional justice attenuates passive opportunism when specific investments have been dedicated, whereas interactional injustice exacerbates passive opportunism. The other dimensions of justice did not influence opportunism (active or passive) significantly.; Keywords. Transaction Cost Economics, Transaction Specific Investments, Active opportunism, Passive Opportunism, Organizational justice. |
