The Internet as an Information Conduit
基于交易成本分析，研究中小企业面对产品信息专用性时是否更多使用互联网与客户直接联系，以减少对渠道中介的依赖。调查42家美国中小企业，结果支持这一关系。
Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can use the internet to establish direct customer contact, thereby reducing reliance on channel intermediaries for customer support. Based on transaction cost analysis, this study examined whether SMEs facing high asset specificity in product information transmitted to and received from customers employed the internet to a greater degree than those facing lower information specificity. Results based on a survey of 42 US SMEs generally supported this relationship. Moreover, results were generally stronger for firm- than industry-level factors impacting information specificity. Overall, these findings highlight the important benefit that internet use can provide in reducing an SME's transaction costs.