Partner-based opportunism, interface structure, and performance efficiency in upstream and downstream alliance activities contexts

Musarra, Giuseppe, Bowen, Karen Tejedor, Robson, Matthew J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8642-9980 and Spyropoulou, Stavroula 2021. Partner-based opportunism, interface structure, and performance efficiency in upstream and downstream alliance activities contexts. Industrial Marketing Management 93 , pp. 76-89. 10.1016/j.indmarman.2021.01.003

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Abstract

Few alliance studies have theorized that opportunism’s effect on performance efficiency is contingent on other factors. Our study posits that alliance partner size and no end-point serve as interface structure mechanisms that condition the efficiency outcomes of partner-based opportunism in alliances. We argue that the direct effect of partner-based opportunism, and the moderation effects of alliance partner size and no end-point, differ according to the alliance activities context (i.e., upstream vs. downstream). Our hypotheses were tested using a survey of 361 alliances. We observe that partner-based opportunism is indeed associated with performance inefficiencies. Further, while alliance partner size has a nonsignificant moderating effect, no end-point has a positive moderating effect, on the relationship between partner-based opportunism and efficiency; that is, the negative link becomes less negative for no end-point alliances. We find that the negative performance relevance of partner-based opportunism remains significant among upstream alliances, but drops to nonsignificance for downstream ones. We show that alliance partner size has a negative moderating effect on the link partner-based opportunism to performance efficiency among downstream, but not upstream, alliances. Lastly, we find that the positive moderating effect of no end-point is significant among upstream, but not downstream, alliances. Our results generate important implications for managers’ efforts to design and govern alliances.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Business (Including Economics)
Publisher:	Elsevier
ISSN:	0019-8501
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	18 January 2021
Date of Acceptance:	2 January 2021
Last Modified:	15 Nov 2023 20:25
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/137769

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