Working paper insead

Erin Anderson and the Path Breaking
Work of TCE in New Areas of
Business Research: Transaction
Costs in Action

_______________
Aline GATIGNON
Hubert GATIGNON
2010/40/ST/MKT

Erin Anderson and the Path Breaking Work of TCE in
New Areas of Business Research:
Transaction Costs in Action

Aline Gatignon *
and
Hubert Gatignon**

*

PhD Candidate in Strategy at IN SEAD, Boulevardde Constance, 77305 Fontainebleau, France
E mail: aline.gatignon@insead.edu

**

The Claude Janssen Chaire d Professor of Business Administration and Professor of Marketing
at INSEAD, Boulevard de Constance, 77305 Fontainebleau, France Ph: (33) 01 60 71 26 28
E mail: hubert.gatignon@insead.edu

A working paper in the INSEAD Working Paper Series is intended as a m eans whereby a faculty
researcher's thoughts and findings may be communicated to interested readers. The paper should be
considered preliminary in nature and may require revision.
Printed at INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France. K indly do not reproduce or circu late without permission.

Erin Anderson and the Path Breaking Work of TCE in New Areas of Business Research:
Transaction Costs in Action

Abstract

Thisreview article synthesizes Erin Anderson’s academic contribution, with an emphasis on
two path breaking aspects of her work, namely the operationalization of TCA in different contexts and
the refinement of the theory.

We review the measures that she developed to reflect key TCE

constructs, and identify five contexts in which Erin Anderson’s application of TCE concepts broke
new paths. Theseare employee or representative salesforces, choice of foreign entry mode, new
market entry and innovation, countertrade, and ethics. We highlight a number of ways in which her
research integrates other theories to transaction cost economics, thereby deepening our understanding
of key issues involving make or buy decisions. Finally, we draw attention to directions for future
research identifiedthrough her work.

Erin Anderson and the Path Breaking Work of TCE in New Areas of Business Research:
Transaction Costs in Action

Erin Anderson, who passed away in 2007, felt immensely grateful towards Barton Weitz, her
PhD advisor who set her on the path to discovering Williamsonian Economics.

Williamson’s

transaction cost economics took her on a journey that became the thread ofher academic career.
Barton Weitz inspired her early research agenda and encouraged her research endeavors as her
dissertation advisor and later on as a colleague at the Wharton School. It was also at the Wharton
School that Oliver Williamson provided her with the intellectual stimulation that led to her extensive
academic contribution.

Introduction

While Coase quipped that his 1937article was “much cited but little used” (Coase 1988), the
reverse could be said of transaction cost economics today. In their 2006 paper, Geyskens et al.
underline the breadth and depth of literature which developed around TCE, stating that “few other
organizational frameworks have been studied for a longer period of time or have been accorded as
much scholarly attention as transaction costtheory”.

This statement certainly applied to Erin

Anderson’s work: throughout her career, she published 43 scholarly articles as well as 6 book chapters
on transaction costs in action, and was nominated in ISI’s top 0.5% most cited scholars in business and
economics in 2003. This review article is an attempt to synthesize her contribution, with an emphasis
on two path breaking aspects of her work,namely the operationalization of TCA in different contexts
and the refinement of the theory.

1

Operationalizing Transaction Cost Analysis in different contexts

Geyskens et al. (2006) note that “efforts to subject transaction cost theory to empirical testing
began shortly after the publication of Williamson’s seminal book ‘Markets and Hierarchies’ and have
continued unabated since...