The Mediating Effect of Relationship Quality on the Transaction Cost–Export Performance Link: Bangladeshi Exporters' Perspectives

Abstract

This study explores how relationship quality might mediate the link between transaction cost variables and export performance. In the proposed conceptual model, relationship-specific assets and uncertainty affect export performance both directly and through relationship quality; survey data from 185 exporting organizations in Bangladesh provide the test of this model. This article thus proposes that transaction cost economics and relational exchange theories are complementary rather than competing theories. These conclusions arise because this study accounts for not only the direct effect of asset specificity and uncertainty on export performance but also their indirect effects through relationship quality, which have not been empirically tested or clarified previously.

KEYWORDS:

• partial least squares (PLS)
• relational exchange theory (RET)
• RELQUAL
• specific assets
• uncertainty