Objective: To verify the influence of resource dependence and information sharing on relational exchange costs between buyers and suppliers of transport services.
Method: Research of quantitative approach, with data obtained through survey, assessed the perception of professionals from companies in the food and beverage sector that outsource transport activities, and counted on the participation of 120 professionals from transport and logistics sectors of these organizations. For the structural model analysis, it was used the technique of Structural Equation Modeling by Partial Least Squares.
Results: The results reveal that food and beverage companies' dependence on transport service providers may lead these organizations to share information. They also suggest that information sharing in the investigated relationships may instigate the development of psychological and emotional bonds between business partners, constituting relational exchange costs.
Contributions: Such results have theoretical and practical contributions by suggesting that buyers' resource dependence on their suppliers may instigate information exchange between partners. Moreover, information sharing may encourage the continuity of relationships due to relational barriers to exchange. Moreover, the study adds to the literature by analyzing dependence and information sharing jointly, since previous studies have analyzed such constructs in a dissociated manner and in contexts distinct from the one investigated here.
Originality: The study is justified by evidencing elements capable of stimulating partners to share information relevant to their operations, and of restraining customers from switching suppliers due to personal and brand barriers.
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