Distributor Opportunism Toward the Supplier: A Social Network Perspective

Existing literature on distributor opportunism investigates the phenomenon from a dyadic perspective. One cannot rule out influence of network embeddedness within the supply-chain context, especially in an IT-enabled digital world. This paper investigates how a distributor’s relationship with other distributors in the network influences its opportunism toward the primary supplier and whether the outcome differs with national culture. Based on the social network theory and in-depth interviews of 21 managers, it develops a model to examine the role of three-dimensional “network embeddedness” on “distributor’s opportunism towards supplier” moderated by “national culture,” validated using structural equation modeling on a survey data of 250 managers. There is a significant effect of network embeddedness on distributor opportunism toward supplier. However, there are differences in the impact of the three dimensions: relational, structural, and cognitive embeddedness. National culture influences the outcome of only relational and cognitive embeddedness.