Asymmetries in buyer-supplier relationships can have major implications on relational performance. This dissertation explores the relationship between three different asymmetries that emerge in relationships. Trust, knowledge, and dependence levels have been shown to have both positive or negative effects in buyer-supplier relationships. In order to explain these paradoxes, the constructs of trust asymmetry, knowledge asymmetry, and relational dependence asymmetry are developed in order to understand how asymmetries in buyer-supplier relationships might lead to conflict and opportunism in buyer-supplier dyads. This dissertation explores the concept of asymmetries in buyer-supplier relationships through a multi-method approach which explores dyadic asymmetries from the perspective of theory-building, simulation modeling and testing, and empirical survey collection and analysis. A model which explores the dyadic nature of trust and combines the trust models of reciprocal trust, mutual trust, and trust asymmetry is presented and tested. The relationships between trust, knowledge, and dependence asymmetries and the negative relational outcomes of conflict and opportunism are explored via dyadic survey data. The concept of signal loss within trust channels is proposed as a mechanism which leads to trust asymmetry. A simulation is developed which explores the theory of the fraud triangle in the context of buyer-supplier relationships as the mediating pathway through which asymmetries lead to opportunism in relationships. This relationship is developed and tested using a cellular automata simulation. The findings support the need for dyadic analysis in buyer-supplier relationships and yield additional insights in managing buyer-supplier relationships and relational risk.
Read
