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Although previous studies have examined the influence of asset specificity on firm performance, the literature has not focused on the influence of supplier asset specificity on product development, or the transformation that induces this. This study aims to propose a model by using the relational exchange perspective to explain the mechanism in which supplier investment in specific assets on behalf of buyers influences buyer performance in product development.

Empirical data were collected from research and development staff in Taiwanese listed electronic firms and tested using structural equation modeling to verify the fit of the hypothetical model.

The result demonstrates that supplier investment in specific assets for buyers positively impacts buyer's perceived relationship quality, which in turn affects knowledge sharing between buyers and suppliers and buyer product development performance. However, asset specificity does not directly affect knowledge sharing.

This study illuminates the contribution of asset specificity to knowledge sharing and product development performance, by clarifying the mediation effects resulting from relationship quality and knowledge sharing.

The impact of specific investments to performance has mixed arguments. This paper aims to clarify how and under what conditions specific investments made by manufacturer tailored to supplier affect the new product development (NPD) performance of the manufacturer itself.

This study develops a moderated mediation model, testing the roles of supplier involvement and information technology (IT) implementation by regression and bootstrap analyses from 378 NPD projects.

The results show both physical and human specific investments positively affect NPD performance. IT implementation strengthens the mediated role of supplier involvement, i.e. the mediator role of supplier involvement between specific investments and NPD performance link is significantly weaker while IT implementation is lower.

The findings contribute to identify IT implementation and supplier involvement as two important constructs, together demonstrating how and when specific investments affect NPD performance.

Based on a survey study of 138 software buyers in Turkey, this study examines conditional indirect effects of requirements uncertainty on supplier opportunism where buyer dependence, a proxy for relation-specific investments, undertakes a mediator role. The authors consider a two-level moderation effect of trust and contract in buyer–supplier relationships throughout the software project lifecycle.

A survey-based empirical study was conducted, and conditional process analyses were run using PROCESS macro in SPSS. The present study tests a two-stage moderated mediation model in which competence-based trust with a detailed contract setting moderates the mediational path from requirements uncertainty to buyer dependence.

The data obtained from the buyer side in the Turkish software industry showed that a relationship in which the buyer is structurally dependent begins at a high level of trust. On the other hand, the authors found that contractual rigidity fosters supplier opportunism ex-post in evolving process of the relationship.

This study contributes to project management literature by testing a two-level moderation effect of governance and the mediator role of buyer dependence in the relationship between requirements uncertainty and supplier opportunism. Moving differently from the previous studies, this study integrates contributions of both economic perspectives, such as resource dependence theory and transaction cost analysis, and relational perspectives into the information processing view.

Previous studies have argued that trust and commitment can create value in cooperative relationships. However, this study observed that, in practice, trust and commitment alone may not ensure value creation in asymmetric relationships. Accordingly, this study aims to investigate the mediating role of specific assets in the effects of trust and commitment on value creation in asymmetric buyer–seller relationships.

Contract manufacturers (CMs) in Asia were sampled to validate the argument proposed by this study. Most Taiwanese CMs are partnered with international brands (original equipment manufacturers [OEMs]) that have stronger bargaining power. This cooperative relationship is characteristically asymmetric. A questionnaire method was applied, and structural equation modeling was performed to verify the proposed hypotheses.

Specific asset investment (SAI) was a crucial mediator that explained the effects of trust and commitment on the relationship value of an asymmetric cooperative relationship. Past studies have claimed that power asymmetry results in an unequal distribution of benefits. Nevertheless, regarding the relationship between CMs and OEMs, the study revealed that relationship value could still be increased once the congruent goals have been achieved by both parties. This finding contradicts past theoretical predictions.

Characteristically asymmetric CMs–OEMs (seller–buyer) relationships cannot be maintained merely through trust and commitment, particularly in the context of power and resource imbalances in which the stronger party often possesses a wider selection of prospective partners. The results of this study suggested that the CM should unilaterally invest in specific assets conducive to a cooperative relationship as an expression of faith in the relationship with the stronger firm, thereby creating opportunities for value cocreation.

The analysis of the relevance of relationship quality in the context of asymmetric cooperative relationships confirmed the mediating influences of SAI on ensuring value creation and the maintenance of the relationships. Relationship value could still be created despite the highly asymmetry power relationship. The CMs’ SAI is the key mechanism for this achievement.

This paper aims to investigate the impact of a firm's marketing strategy on involving customers in new product development. Special attention is to be paid to three facets of a marketing strategy: product differentiation, competitor orientation and brand profiling emphasis.

A survey with quantitative questionnaires was used in the context of relationships between Norwegian suppliers and international buyers.

Two facets of marketing strategy, product differentiation and competitor orientation, positively impact customer involvement. Furthermore, specific investments dedicated to the relationship are also positively related to customer involvement, and customer involvement increases customer profitability.

The study relies on data from the suppliers, and future studies should also include customer data to explore possible effects of the customer's marketing strategy on joint involvement in new product development.

The study shows that managers seeking to involve customers in product development should carefully develop their marketing strategy and build commitment through specific investments.

Previous studies show that firms can benefit from involving customers in new product development. This paper extends knowledge in the field by exploring how different facets of the firm's marketing strategy can increase or decrease the possibilities for involving customers.

This paper aims to analyze the impact of three types of embedded ties, namely, specialized complementary resources, idiosyncratic investments and knowledge sharing, on the innovation capacity of firms. It also examines the particularities of the machine-tool industry.

The evaluation of the embedded buyer-supplier ties is based on the potential sources of relational rents proposed by Dyer and Singh (1998). It also draws on Uzzi and Lancaster (2003) and Noordhoff et al. (2011), among others, to discuss the positive and negative aspects of embedded ties. Using data from a survey of 202 European machine-tool firms acting as buyers and sellers, the study proposes and evaluates a structural equation model.

Only knowledge-sharing routines exert a significant positive effect on product innovation performance. Neither an increase in idiosyncratic investments nor in complementary resources and capabilities enhances innovation performance. Moreover, knowledge-sharing routines mediate in the effect of idiosyncratic investments on innovation performance.

The machine-tool industry has unique characteristics that make generalization difficult. There is also considerable difficulty associated with testing the interrelations among these embedded ties in greater depth in the long run. It is plausible to consider that these interrelations operate within a gradual process.

This research contributes to a better understanding of the role of embedded ties on innovativeness. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no previous international empirical research has been published analyzing the mediation effects among specialized complementary resources, idiosyncratic investments and knowledge sharing, and their effects on the innovation capacity of firms.

The paper is motivated by the paucity of empirical research on the determinants of capitalisation rates/yield in the commercial property market. Compared to property price determinants, the capitalisation rate has received significantly less attention. This is somewhat surprising given that the capitalisation rate is a more insightful indicator for investors on commercial property market performance than merely price changes or trends. The capitalisation rate, measured as the ratio of net operating income to the property’s capital value, captures the asset’s overall ability to generate income which is crucial for investors who typically invest in property for their income-generating capacity. The purpose of this paper is to address these issues.

To evaluate the determinants of capitalisation rates, time series analysis was used. The data capture performance in the Australian commercial property market between 2005 and 2018. All macroeconomic and financial data are freely available from official sources such as the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the nation’s central bank. Methodology wise, given the problematic nature of the data such as a mixed order of integration and the possibility of cointegration amongst some of the I (1) variables, the autoregressive distributed lag model was selected given its flexibility and relative lack of assumptions.

Bond rates, market risk premiums, stock market excess returns and other macroeconomic variables were found to drive capitalisation rates of Australian commercial properties. A 1% increase in the bond rate results in approximately 0.3–2.4% increase in capitalisation rates depending on the sub-market. Further, a 1% increase in excess market returns results in a 0.01–0.02% increase in capitalisation rates. Regarding risk premiums, a 100 basis point increase in the BBB spread results in approximately 0.92–1.27% reduction in cap rates in certain markets.

Asset managers will find these results useful in asset allocation strategies. Commercial properties offer attractive investment qualities such as yield stability in periods of economic uncertainty while allowing for the possibility of capital growth through appreciation of the underlying asset. By understanding the factors that affect the capitalisation rate, practitioners may predict emerging trends and identify threats to portfolio return and stability. This allows better integration of commercial property in the construction of portfolios that remain robust in a variety of market conditions.

The contribution to literature is significant given the lack of similar studies in the Australian market. The performance of real estate assets using cap rates as a comparative measure to equities and bonds influences decisions in asset allocation strategies. It provides crucial information for investors to estimate the performance of commercial property. This research supports the notion that both space and capital market indicators jointly affect capitalisation rates. The findings expand the knowledge base relating to commercial properties and validate the assessments of investors, developers and valuers who utilise yield as a performance benchmark for asset allocation strategies.

Seen from the seller's point of view, this study examines economic and non-economic satisfaction as distinct conceptual variables, and tests how the constructs relate to each other and to the business transactional cost variables of formalisation, specific investments and dependence.

Data was collected from 213 key informants from Norwegian companies involved in business-to-business marketing. Structural equation modelling was used to test the posited hypotheses.

The findings show that sellers' economic satisfaction exerts a positive influence on non-economic satisfaction and on formalisation, while its posited influence on specific investments was not found to be significant. Formalisation was, however, not significantly influenced by seller non-economic satisfaction. Specific investment was positively influenced by seller non-economic satisfaction. The influence of formalisation on specific investments and dependence was significant. Specific investments were also found to be positively influenced by dependence.

The study reveals the importance of assessing both economic and non-economic satisfaction in trying to understand sellers' behaviour in business-to-business markets.

The findings show the need for managers to ensure economic satisfaction, as its affects non-economic satisfaction.

This study contributes to a better understanding of satisfaction in business-to-business exchange relationships and its relationship with transactional cost constructs based on a seller's perspective.

This study aims to examine how different modes of knowledge flows affect the changes of asset specificity and how ownership control moderates the relationship between knowledge flows and asset specificity in the open innovation paradigm.

This paper selects information technology outsourcing as the research base. It uses the feasible weighted least squares modeling method for its analysis and has collected the data from 2,369 research and development contracts of multinational vendor firms in China.

The coupled and outbound knowledge flows have a direct and positive effect on asset specificity. Moreover, the results show that weak corporate control has significant moderating effects on the relationship between both coupled and outbound knowledge flows and asset specificity; the strong control positively moderates the relationship between outbound knowledge flows and asset specificity.

In open innovation, firms build a higher degree of asset specificity to maximize the efficiency of knowledge flows, which then helps them to enhance innovation capacity and market performance.

Preceding studies have tended to examine the influences of asset specificity as an independent variable in a closed innovation paradigm. Asset specificity is hence often left as the antecedent “black box.” This paper, however, opens the “black box” of asset specificity, which is set as a dependent variable, by investigating the influences of knowledge flows on the asset specificity in the context of open innovation. It also reinterprets the role of asset specificity by adopting the lens of open innovation theory.

This paper aims to clarify the conditions under which firms can add direct or independent channels to their single channel system and switch to multiple channel systems. Using the transaction cost theory, variables, i.e. specific asset investments, internal uncertainty, and environmental uncertainty, this study seeks to examine how those variables affect firms' decision to adopt a specific multiple channel mix.

The study was conducted within the context of a manufacturer and its multiple channel systems. Using a survey method, primary data were collected from 189 US manufacturers and 98 Taiwanese OEMs. The t‐test and regression analyses were used to test the hypotheses.

The results indicate that under high‐specific asset investments, high‐environmental uncertainty, and high‐internal uncertainty conditions firms add direct channels and adopt an independent‐direct multiple channel system. On the other hand, under low levels of those variables firms expand their channel system into multiple channels by adopting an independent‐independent multiple channel system.

The findings provide guidelines to managers regarding the composition of their multiple channel systems. As a limitation, this study uses only three transaction cost variables. Future studies should include other variables that may affect channel design decisions.

While various studies have analyzed firms' decision to switch to multiple channels by adopting new channels, the nature of those added channels remains under‐researched. This study aims to fill that gap. Also, unlike some other similar studies that only depend on US data, this study tests the hypotheses with the data obtained not only from US manufacturers but also from Taiwanese OEMs