When Does Familiarity Manifest its Dark Side in the Construction Industry: Moderating Roles of Task Uncertainty and Dependence Asymmetry
基于中国建筑行业调查数据，研究了任务不确定性和依赖不对称如何调节熟悉度与卖方机会主义行为的关系，发现高任务不确定性或高依赖不对称下熟悉度会促进机会主义行为。
In construction project transactions, learning about each other occurs more naturally through prior interactions. However, there are inconsistent views in the existing literature on the impact of familiarity on opportunistic behavior, and the boundary conditions of this impact are not yet clear. To fill these research gaps, this article mainly examines the moderating roles of task uncertainty (reflecting the inherent attributes of construction projects) and dependence asymmetry (reflecting the characteristics of interorganizational relationships) on the relationship between familiarity and opportunistic behavior from learning and knowledge-based perspectives and classifies opportunistic behavior into strong and weak forms. Based on survey data from the Chinese construction industry, this article reveals that task uncertainty positively moderates the relationship between familiarity and sellers’ opportunistic behavior (both strong form and weak form), and dependence asymmetry positively moderates the relationship between familiarity and sellers’ weak-form opportunistic behavior. Furthermore, in the case of high task uncertainty or high dependence asymmetry, familiarity significantly facilitates (rather than inhibits) sellers’ opportunistic behavior, namely, manifesting its dark side. By revealing the boundary conditions of the dark-side effect of familiarity, this article shows more fully the effect of familiarity from learning and knowledge-based perspectives, thus providing an explanation for contradictions in the existing literature and contributing to the agency theory, and offering managerial guidance for construction project buyers in choosing sellers.