Inter-firm opportunism: a meta-analytic review and assessment of its antecedents and effect on performance

Abstract

Purpose

This meta-analysis aims to aggregate empirical findings from extant inter-firm opportunism literature.

Design/methodology/approach

First, a quantitative summary on the bivariate relationships between the antecedents and the consequences of opportunism is offered. Second, a multivariate analysis is employed to identify significant antecedents of opportunism and the process variables that mediate the relationship between inter-firm opportunism and organizational performance.

Findings

Results reveal that goal congruence has the largest influence on inter-firm opportunism, followed by cultural sensitivity, communication, and environmental volatility, norms, governance emphasis, and relative dependence. These important antecedents represent significant research directions for inter-firm opportunism. In addition, inter-firm opportunism affects organizational performance through a mediating process including commitment, functional conflict, overall satisfaction, and trust. Commitment is found to act as a major moderating construct between inter-firm opportunism and its other significant consequences in the revised model.

Originality/value

This study widens the horizon on inter-firm opportunism research by examining a much greater number of effect sizes and by employing a more complex framework of the mechanism mediating the inter-firm opportunism-organizational performance relationship and does so more effectively than any individual research work.

Citation

Wang, X. and Yang, Z. (2013), "Inter-firm opportunism: a meta-analytic review and assessment of its antecedents and effect on performance", Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Vol. 28 No. 2, pp. 137-146. https://doi.org/10.1108/08858621311295272

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