Are information asymmetry and sharing good, bad, or context dependent? A meta-analytic review

• Information asymmetry generally yields undesirable outcomes and information sharing generates favorable outcomes.
• Organizational setting, product and market type, relationship duration, and operationalization are significant moderators.
• Information asymmetry produces stronger deleterious effects in interorganizational versus intraorganizagtional settings.
• Information sharing generates stronger favorable effects in consumer versus industrial markets.
• The negative relationship between information sharing and opportunism is weaker in relationships that are 6 + years old.

Information is often distributed asymmetrically in exchange relationships, opening the door for opportunistic behaviors. Yet extant research has found that information asymmetry may decrease opportunism and increase performance in some contexts. Also contrary to expectations, information sharing has been found to decrease performance in some contexts. This study uses meta-analytic techniques to reconcile these contradictory findings. The results indicate that organizational setting, product type, market type, relationship duration, and construct operationalization can account for the inconsistent findings reported in extant research. Of particular interest: 1) information asymmetry is related negatively to performance in goods settings and positively to performance in services settings; 2) information asymmetry produces stronger deleterious effects in interorganizational (versus intraorganizational) settings; 3) information sharing generates stronger favorable effects in consumer (versus industrial) markets; and 4) the negative relationship between information sharing and opportunism is weaker in relationships that are 6 + years old.