Patterns of Credible Commitments: Territory and Brand Selectivity in Industrial Distribution Channels
基于交易成本理论，研究了制造商限制区域经销商数量与经销商限制品牌种类之间的相互承诺关系，利用362对制造商-经销商数据验证了该框架。
The authors propose a new theoretical rationale that explains the paired existence of both a manufacturer's decision to limit the number of intermediaries operating in a specific geographic market and a distributor's decision to limit brand assortment in a product category. Using transaction cost reasoning, they suggest that channel selectivity agreements can be understood as interrelated exchanges of pledges, or credible commitments, that counterbalance exposure to opportunism and neutralize sources of relationship instability, thereby strengthening an interorganizational relationship. The empirical results, which are based on dyadic data from 362 manufacturer–distributor relationships, are broadly supportive of their framework.