Effective interim collaboration: how firms minimize transaction costs and maximise transaction value

This study of automotive transaction relationships in the U.S.A. and Japan offers abta which indicate that transaction costs do not necessarily increase with an increase in reiation-specijk investments. We empirically examine the conditions under which transactors can simultaneously achieve the twin benejits of high asset specificity and low transaction costs. This is possible because the dtfferent safeguards which can be employed to control opportunism have different set-up costs and result in different transaction costs over dl~erent time horizons. We examine in detail the ~ractices of Javanese firms which result in effective inteq%n collaboration. @ .. 1997 by John- Wiley & Sons: Ltd. "