There is increasing interest among marketing channel researchers in the subject of long-term interfirm relational exchanges, as more firms are favoring relationship approaches in their transactions with other companies. Interfirm relational exchanges can be defined as any stable and cooperative long-term exchange arrangements between independent exchange partners which deviate from discrete market exchanges. Long-term relational contracts are normally more complex than short-term transactional contracts, and unavoidably incomplete due to bounded rationality. Thus, long-term exchange relationships are more fraught with the hazards of opportunistic behavior. The opportunistic behavior in relational exchange is different based on the nature of interfirm commitment between the channel partners. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between opportunism and interfirm commitment. Purchasing relationships between OEM manufacturers and their component suppliers were chosen as the empirical setting. Purchasing specialists in each company, who interact regularly with the suppliers and have the major responsibility for managing the exchange relationships with the suppliers, were used as the respondents for this study. A mail survey methodology was employed to collect the data in the final field survey. As predicted, Attitudinal commitment is negatively related to opportunism and calculative commitment is positively related to opportunism. Thus, the result supports the proposed hypotheses: a party's perceived fear of its exchange partner's opportunistic behavior is related to a higher level of calculative commitment and a lower level of attitudinal commitment.

There is increasing interest among marketing channel researchers in the subject of long-term interfirm relational exchanges, as more firms are favoring relationship approaches in their transactions with other companies. Interfirm relational exchanges can be defined as any stable and cooperative long-term exchange arrangements between independent exchange partners which deviate from discrete market exchanges. Long-term relational contracts are normally more complex than short-term transactional contracts, and unavoidably incomplete due to bounded rationality. Thus, long-term exchange relationships are more fraught with the hazards of opportunistic behavior. The opportunistic behavior in relational exchange is different based on the nature of interfirm commitment between the channel partners. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between opportunism and interfirm commitment. Purchasing relationships between OEM manufacturers and their component suppliers were chosen as the empirical setting. Purchasing specialists in each company, who interact regularly with the suppliers and have the major responsibility for managing the exchange relationships with the suppliers, were used as the respondents for this study. A mail survey methodology was employed to collect the data in the final field survey. As predicted, Attitudinal commitment is negatively related to opportunism and calculative commitment is positively related to opportunism. Thus, the result supports the proposed hypotheses: a party's perceived fear of its exchange partner's opportunistic behavior is related to a higher level of calculative commitment and a lower level of attitudinal commitment.

유통경로 연구에서 기업간 장기적인 관계교환에 대한 관심이 증가하고 있다. 기업간 관계교환은 단속적 시장 교환에서 벗어난 독립적인 교환 파트너 사이의 안정적이고 협동적인 장기간 관계 협정으로써 정의할 수 있다. 장기간 관계 계약은 단속적 거래 계약보다 더욱 복잡하고 합리적 경계로 인하여 불완전하기 때문에, 기회주의적 행동의 위험이 더 커진다고 할 수 있다. 본 연구의 목적은 기회주의와 기업간 몰입 사이의 관계를 조사하고자 한다. 이를 위해 OEM제조업자와 공급업자 사이의 구매 관계르 대상으로 실증적으로 분석 하였다. 각 회사에서 공급업자와 정기적으로 교류하고 공급업자와의 관계 교환을 처리하는 책임을 지고 있는 구매 전문가를 대상으로 우편 조사를 통하여 데이터를 수집하였. 분석 결과, 태도적 몰입은 기회주의적 행동과 부의 관계가 있었고 계산적 몰입은 기회주의와 정의 관계가 있는 것으로 나타나, 따라서 제안된 가설들은 지지되었다.

관계교환, 기회주의적 행동, 태도적 몰입, 계산적 몰입