The relationship between unilateral and bilateral control mechanisms:The contextual effect of long-term orientation

The adoption of various control mechanisms in interfirm relationships has been studied extensively. This paper suggests that the inconsistent findings regarding the relationship between various control mechanisms are due, in part, to the omission of a contextual analysis. The paper propose that a manufacturer's long-term orientation (LTO) toward its supplier may serve as a key contextual factor in explaining the relationships between two control mechanisms, i.e. unilateral and bilateral control mechanisms. The result shows that a LTO is a key factor in explaining the positive relationship between a manufacturer's use of the unilateral control mechanism and the bilateral control mechanism. This paper found that the use of plural control mechanisms increases the manufacturer's satisfaction with its supplier.