Buyer opportunism in business-to-business exchange

•Buyer power, corporate ethical values, and honesty/integrity, affect buyer opportunism.•Leader opportunism, willful ignorance, and subjective expected utility affect buyer opportunism.•Of the factors examined, subjective expected utility (SEU) was the greatest determinant of buyer opportunism.•This study also provides empirical support for distinguishing between two types of opportunism — strong and weak.

A phenomenon of significance in buyer–supplier relationships is opportunism. In lieu of the known negative effects of opportunistic behavior on buyer–supplier relationships, the circumstances in which a sourcing professional engages in acts of opportunism are unclear. Combining theories from multiple disciplines, a comprehensive model tested buyer–supplier relationship-specific factors, environmental factors, an individual-difference factor, and situational factors likely to affect a buyer's decision to use opportunistic tactics. Results reveal how these different theories combine to provide a more comprehensive explanation of buyer behavior than existed in prior literature. Using structural equation modeling of a sample of 328 procurement transactions, factors found to affect buyer opportunism included buyer power, corporate ethical values, honesty/integrity, leader opportunism, willful ignorance, and subjective expected utility. This study also provides empirical support for distinguishing between two types of opportunism — strong and weak. The research concludes with implications for theory and practice, limitations, and areas for future research.