Drawing on theories of governance, the authors hypothesize differences in the relative use of three governance mechanisms between domestic and transnational business relationships. Results indicate that market governance and trust are used less in transnational than in domestic relationships. No differences are found in the use of contracts. Further analysis of the data also revealed cross-cultural differences in the emphasis placed on the three different governance modes. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.
Results indicate that quality and flexibility are important antecedents of customer satisfaction.
These antecedents of customer satisfaction were significantly lower in transnational relationships than in domestic ones. They test the theory using multiple group causal modeling. Findings reveal that there are no structural differences between transnational and domestic relationships concerning the relationships between customer satisfaction and its antecedents. Specifically, a lower level of customer satisfaction in transnational relationships is due to lower levels of the antecedents and does not constitute an effect of transnationality per se. Increasingly firms are looking to conduct more business internationally - whether that be global sourcing or international marketing.