Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Transaction Cost Economics and Beyond pp 105–128Cite as

Opportunism and Trust in Transaction Cost Economics

  • Chapter

Part of the book series: Recent Economic Thought Series ((RETH,volume 48))

Abstract

Transaction cost economics (TCE) as developed by Williamson (1975, 1979, 1985, 1991) focuses on the relationship between attributes of transactions and characteristics of the governance structures used to accommodate these transactions. Transactions vary in many dimensions, the most important of which is the degree of asset specificity. A party incurring relation-specific investments will demand safeguards to prevent its counterpart from attempting to appropriate the quasi-rents associated with these assets (Klein et al., 1978).l These safeguards can take the form of formal, legally enforceable contracts, or of extra-legal private ordering arrangements.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   169.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   249.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD   219.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Axelod, R. 1984. The Evolution of Cooperation. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baier, A. 1986. “Trust and Antitrust.” Ethics 96, 231–260.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barber, B. 1983. The Logic and Limits of Trust. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berger, P.L. and T. Luckmann. 1966. The Social Construction of Reality. Garden City, NJ: Doubleday.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berger, J., N.G. Noorderhaven, B. Nooteboom and B.J. Pennink. 1993. “Understanding the Subcontracting Relationship: The Limitations of Transaction Cost Economics.” In Societal Change Between Market and Organization, J. Child, M. Crozier and R. Mayntz et al., 77–98. Aldershot: Avebury.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berger, J., N.G. Noorderhaven and B. Nooteboom. 1995. “Determinants of Supplier Dependence: An Empirical Study.” In On Economic Institutions; Theory and Application, J. Groenewegen, C. Pitelis and S.E. Sjöstrand, eds. Aldershot: Edward Elgar, 195–212.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bhide, A. and H. Stevenson. 1992. “Trust, Uncertainty, and Profit.” Journal of Socio-Economics 21, 191–208.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blau, P.M. 1968. “Interaction: Social exchange.” In International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, D.L. Sills, ed., vol. 7, 452–458.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boone, C., B. de Brabander and A. van Witteloostuijn. 1994. The Effects of Individual Differences on Competitive and Cooperative Choices in Five Prisoner’s Dilemma Games. Second Conference of the Dutch-Flemish Academy of Management, Antwerp, February 4.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bradach, J. and R. Eccles. 1989. “Price, Authority, and Trust: From Ideal Types to Plural Forms.” American Review of Sociology 15, 97–118.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bromiley, P. and L.L. Cummings. 1992. Transaction Costs in Organizations with Trust. Working Paper, Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Butler, J.K. Jr. 1991. “Toward Understanding and Measuring Conditions of Trust: Evolution of a Conditions of Trust Inventory.” Journal of Management 17, 643–663.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coleman, J.S. 1990. Foundations of Social Theory. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cox, T.H., S.A. Lobel and P.L. McLeod. 1991. “Effects of Ethnic Group Cultural Differences on Cooperative and Competitive Behavior on a Group Task.” Academy of Management Journal 34, 827–847.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Craswell, R. 1993. “On the Uses of “Trust”: Comment on Williamson, ‘Calculativeness, Trust, and Economic Organization’.”Journal of Law & Economics 36, 487–500.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dasgupta, P. 1988. “Trust as a Commodity.” In Trust; Making and Breaking Cooperative Relations, D. Gambetta, ed., 49–72. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • De Laat, P.B. 1993. Technological Alliances: Securing Trust by Mutual Commitments. European Science Foundation Conference “Forms of Inter-organizational networks: Structures mid Processes”, Berlin, 6–7 September.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deutsch, M. 1973. The Resolution of Conflict: Constructive and Destructive Processes. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dunn, J. 1988. “Trust and Political Agency.” In Trust; Making and Breaking Cooperative Relations, D. Gambetta, ed., 73–93. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eisenstadt, S.N., and L. Roniger. 1984. Patrons, Clients and Friends: Interpersonal Relations and the Structure of Trust in Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Elster, J. 1984. Ulysses and the Sirens; Studies in Rationality and Irrationality, revised edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Etzioni, A. 1988. The Moral Dimension; Towards a New Economics. New York: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fox, A. 1974. Beyond Contract: Work Power and Trust Relations. London: Faber & Faber.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frank, R.H. 1988. Passions Within Reason; The Strategic Role of the Emotions. New York: Norton & Cy.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gabarro, J.J. 1978. “The Development of Trust, Influence, and Expectations.” In Interpersonal Behavior: Communication and Understanding in Relationships, A.G. Athos and J.J. Gabarro, eds. 290–303. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Granovetter, M. 1985. “Economic Action and Social Structure: A Theory of Embeddedness.” American Journal of Sociology 91, 481–510.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Griesinger, D.W. 1990. “The Human Side of Economic Organization.” Academy of Management Review 15, 478–499.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hallén, L., J. Johanson and N. Seyed-Mohamed. 1991. “Interfirm Adaptation in Business Relationships.” Journal of Marketing 55, 29–37.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hardin, R. 1991. “Trusting Persons, Trusting Institutions.” In Strategy and Choice, R.J. Zeckhauser, ed. 185–209. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hardin, R. 1993. “The Street-Level Epistemology of Trust.” Politics & Society 21, 505–529.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heide, J.B. and A.S. Miner. 1992. “The Shadow of the Future: Effects of Anticipated Interaction and Frequency of Contact on Buyer-Seller Cooperation.” Academy of Management Journal 35, 265–291.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Homans, G. 1961. Social Behavior: Its Elementary Forms. New York: Harcourt.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson-George, C. and W.C. Swap. 1982. “Measurement of Specific Interpersonal Trust: Construction and Validation of a Scale to Assess Trust in a Specific Other.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 43, 1306–1317.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kahneman, D., J.L. Knetsch and R.H. Thaler. 1986. “Fairness and the Assumptions of Economics.” Journal of Business 59, s285—s300.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaufmann, P.J. 1985. Relational Exchange and Conflict Behavior: An Investigation of Their Relationship to Hostility in the Conflict Aftermath. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Northwestern University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kee, H.W. andR.E. Knox. 1970. “Conceptual and Methodological Considerations in the Study of Trust and Suspicion.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 14, 357–366.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • King, J.B. 1988. “Prisoner’s Paradoxes.” Journal of Business Ethics 7, 475–487.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Klein, B., R.A. Crawford and A.A. Alchian. 1978. “Vertical Integration, Appropriable Rents, and the Competitive Contracting Process.” Journal of Law and Economics 21, 297–326.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Koller, M. 1988. “Risk as a Determinant of Trust.” Basic and Applied Social Psychology 9, 265–276.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kreps, D.M. 1988. “Corporate Culture and Economic Theory.” In Perspectives on Positive Political Economy, J.E. Alt and K.A. Shepsle, eds. 90–143. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuhlmann, D.M. and A.F. Marshello. 1975. “Individual Differences in Game Motivation as Moderators of Preprogrammed Strategy Effects in Prisoner’s Dilemma.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 32, 922–931.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kuhn, T. 1962. The Structure of Scientific Revolution. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ligthart, P.E.M. and S. Lindenberg. 1994. “Ethical Regulation of Economic Transactions: Solidarity Frame versus Gain-Maximization Frame.” In Ethics and Economic Affairs, K.E. Wärneryd and A. Lewis, eds. London: Routledge (forthcoming).

    Google Scholar 

  • Lincoln, J.R. 1990. “Japanese Organization and Organization Theory.” In Research in Organizational Behavior, L.L. Cummings and B. Staw, eds. 12, 255–294.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lindenberg, S. 1988. “Contractual Relations and Weak Solidarity: The Behavioral Basis of Restraints on Gain-Maximization.” Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics 144, 39–58.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lorenz, E.H. 1988. “Neither Friends Nor Strangers: Informal Networks of Subcontracting in French Industry.”In Trust: Making and Breaking Cooperative Relations, D. Gambetta, ed. 194–210. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Luhmann, N. 1979. Trust and Power. Chichester: John Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • — 1988. “Familiarity, Confidence, Trust: Problems and Alternatives.” In Trust: Making and Breaking Cooperative Relations, D. Gambetta, ed. 94–107. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Macaulay, S. 1963. “Non-Contractual Relations in Business: A Preliminary Study.” American Sociological Review 28, 55–70.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Macneil, I.R. 1974. “The Many Futures of Contract.” Southern California Law Review 3, 691–816.

    Google Scholar 

  • — 1980. The New Social Contract. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • — 1983. “Values in Contract: Internal and External.” Northwestern University Law Review 78, 340-418.

    Google Scholar 

  • — 1986. “Exchange Revisited: Individual Utility and Social Solidarity.” Ethics 96, 567–593.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • — 1988. “Contract Remedies: A Need for Better Efficiency Analysis.” Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics 144, 6–30.

    Google Scholar 

  • March, J.G. and Z. Shapira. 1988. “Managerial Perspectives on Risk and Risk-Taking.” In Decisions and Organizations, J.G. March. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Murakami, Y. and T.P. Rohlen. 1992. “Social-Exchange Aspects of the Japanese Political Economy: Culture, Efficiency, and Change.”In The Political Economy of Japan, S. Kumon and H. Rosovsky, eds. vol. 3, 63–105. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Noorderhaven, N.G. 1993. Trust and Transactions: Transaction Cost Analysis with a Differential Behavioral Assumption. Research Memorandum FEW 590, Tilburg University.

    Google Scholar 

  • — 1994. “Transaction Cost Analysis and the Explanation of Hybrid Vertical Inter-Firm Relations.” Review of Political Economy 6, 19–36.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • — 1995a. “Trust and Transactions: Transaction Cost Analysis with a Differential Behavioral Assumption.” Tijdschriftvoor Economie en Management 15, 5–18.

    Google Scholar 

  • — 1995b. “Transaction, Interaction, Institutionalization: Toward a Dynamic Theory of Hybrid Governance.” Scandinavian Journal of Management 11, 43–55.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • — 1995c. “The Argumentational Texture of Transaction Cost Economics.” Forthcoming in Organization Studies.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nooteboom, B. 1993a. “An Analysis of Specificity in Transaction Cost Economics.” Organization Studies 14, 443–451.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • — 1993b. The Causality of Transactional Dependence. Working Paper, School of Management and Organization, University of Groningen.

    Google Scholar 

  • Payne, J.W., J.R. Bettman and E.J. Johnson. 1992. “Behavioral Decision Research: A Constructive Processing Perspective.” Annual Review of Psychology 43, 87–131.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Petermann, F. 1985. Psychologie des Vertrauens. Salzburg: Otto Müller Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Postrel, S. 1991. “Burning Your Britches Behind You: Can Policy Scholars Bank on Game Theory?” Strategic Management Journal 12, 153–155.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ring, P.S. 1991. Transacting in the State of Union: An Alternative to the State of Contract. Working Paper, Department of Management, Loyola Marymount University.

    Google Scholar 

  • — 1993. Processes Facilitating Reliance on Trust in Inter-Organizational Networks. European Science Foundation Conference “Forms of Inter-Organizational Networks: Structures and Processes”, Berlin, 6–7 September.

    Google Scholar 

  • — and G. Rands 1989. “Sensemaking, Understanding and Committing: Emergent Transaction Processes in the Evolution of 3M’s Microgravity Research Program.” In Research on the Management of Innovation: The Minnesota Studies, A.H. Van de Ven, H. Angle and M.S. Poole, eds. 337–366. New York: Ballinger/Harper & Row.

    Google Scholar 

  • — and A.H. van de Ven. 1992. “Structuring Cooperative Relationships Between Organizations.” Strategic management Journal 13, 483–498.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • — and A.H. van de Ven 1994. “Developmental Processes of Cooperative Interorganizational Relationships.” Academy of Management Review 19, 90–118.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rotter, J.B. 1980. “Interpersonal Trust, Trustworthiness, and Gullibility.” American Psychologist 35, 1–7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rowe, N. 1989. Rules and Institutions. New York: Philip Allan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sahlins, M. 1972. Stone Age Economics. New York: Aldine.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sanford, N. 1968. “Personality: The Field.” In International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, D.L. Sills, ed., vol. 11, 586–606.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scott, K.E. 1988. “Contract Remedies: A Need for Better Efficiency Analysis. Comment [on Macneil (1988)].” Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics 144, 31–34.

    Google Scholar 

  • Semlinger, K. 1991. Innovation, Cooperation and Strategic Contracting. Paper for the International Colloquium on Management of Technology, Paris.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shapiro, S. 1987. “The Social Control of Impersonal Trust.” American Journal of Sociology 93, 623–658.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sitkin, S.B. and N.L. Roth. 1993. “Explaining the Limited Effectiveness of Legalistic “Remedies” for Trust/Distrust.” Organization Science 4, 367–392.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vélez-Ibanez, CG. 1983. Bonds of Mutual Trust; The Cultural Systems of Rotating Credit Associations Among Urban Mexicans and Chicanos. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams, B. 1988. “Formal Structures and Social Reality.” In Trust: Making and Breaking Cooperative Relations, D. Gambetta, ed. 3–13. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williamson, O.E. 1975. Markets and Hierarchies: Analysis and Antitrust Implications. New York: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • — 1979. “Transaction-Cost Economics: The Governance of Contractual Relations.” Journal of Law & Economics 22, 3–61.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • — 1985. The Economic Institutions of Capitalism: Firms, Markets, Relational Contracting. New York: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • — 1991. “Comparative Economic Organization: The Analysis of Discrete Structural Alternatives”. Administrative Science Quarterly 36: 269–296.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • — 1993a. “Calculativeness, Trust, and Economic Organization.” Journal of Law & Economics 36, 453–486.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • — 1993b. “Opportunism and Its Critics.” Managerial and Decision Economics 14, 97–107.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zand, D.E. 1972. “Trust and Managerial Problem Solving.” Administrative Science Quarterly 17, 229–239.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zucker, L. 1986. “Production of Trust: Institutional Sources of Economic Structure, 1849–1920”. In Research in Organizational Behavior, B.M. Staw and L.L. Cummings, eds. 8, 53–111.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. Niels G. Noorderhaven
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics, GRASP / Erasmus University Rotterdam, P.O. Box 1738, 3000 DR, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    John Groenewegen

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1996 Kluwer Academic Publishers

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Noorderhaven, N.G. (1996). Opportunism and Trust in Transaction Cost Economics. In: Groenewegen, J. (eds) Transaction Cost Economics and Beyond. Recent Economic Thought Series, vol 48. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1800-9_6

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1800-9_6

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-7302-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-009-1800-9

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation