Title: Exploring the transaction dimensions of supply chain management

Authors: Britta Lietke, Madlen Boslau

Addresses: Georg-August-Universitat Gottingen, Institute for Marketing and Retailing, Nikolausberger Weg 23, 37073 Gottingen, Germany. ' Georg-August-Universitat Gottingen, Institute for Marketing and Retailing, Nikolausberger Weg 23, 37073 Gottingen, Germany

Abstract: It is argued that firm cooperation in Supply Chain Management (SCM) can be classified as a hybrid governance structure in a new institutional sense. Using a key informant survey, exploratory data on transaction dimensions and supply chain management were gathered and analysed. The findings suggest that the implementation of such a cooperation is not a binary choice but rather a matter of varying degrees. All factors commonly associated with influencing transaction costs (asset specificity, uncertainty and frequency) are significantly higher for firms with more fully implemented supply chain management, making a more integrated solution advantageous. Additionally, the data suggest a strong influence of transaction frequency on the degree of asset specificity and uncertainty.

Keywords: supply chain management; SCM networks; hybrid governance; survey; transaction costs; transaction dimensions; asset specificity; uncertainty.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNVO.2007.013541

International Journal of Networking and Virtual Organisations, 2007 Vol.4 No.2, pp.163 - 179

Published online: 04 May 2007 *

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