Investigating partners' opportunistic behavior in joint ventures in China: The role of transaction costs and relational exchanges

The complexity theory is adopted to better explain and understand the causal patterns of factors affecting partners' opportunistic behavior in joint ventures (JVs). To achieve the research aim, the study adopts two dominant and complementary perspectives of transaction cost economics and relational exchange theory to identify transaction cost-related factors and elements of relational exchanges as critical factors affecting partners' opportunistic behavior in JVs. To test research propositions, the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) is applied for configuration analyses on a sample of 268 JV partners from the Chinese manufacturing sector. Results demonstrate that seven configurations of transaction cost-related factors and elements of relational exchanges can explain partners' opportunistic behavior well. This study not only provides insights into how transaction cost-related factors and elements of relational exchanges combine to account for opportunism in JVs, but also contributes to managerial practice by providing evidence for the causal patterns of factors causing JV opportunism, so that effective measures against opportunism can be made to achieve a reliable alliance.