The importance of client heterogeneity in predicting make‐or‐buy decisions
研究将交易成本经济学与能力视角结合，发现客户异质性、中介风险和公司学习共同影响企业进入外国市场时是否使用中介的决策。
Abstract Scholars have begun to merge the transaction cost economics and capabilities perspectives to examine outsourcing decisions. Further integrating these perspectives with intermediation theory, we assert that a firm's decision to use an intermediary when entering a foreign market is largely a function of the intermediary's relative capabilities and relative transaction costs (i.e., relative advantage). We hypothesize that the intermediary's relative advantage is influenced by three significantly intertwined exchange conditions: client heterogeneity, intermediary risk, and firm learning. Using a sample of 929 new foreign market initiatives by a global consulting firm, our results support our theory.