Advanced technology implementation in developing countries: transaction attributes and supplier relationships

This paper explores how the transaction attributes of technology affect differences in the pattern of relationships between technology buyers and suppliers. It also examines the impact on performance of different patterns of relationship between the buyer and supplier of technology. Data obtained from 147 manufacturing firms in Malaysia are used to test several hypotheses, which were derived from an extensive review of the literature relating to technology, transaction cost theory, and buyer-supplier relationships. The results indicate that the higher the level of technological complexity, specificity, and uncertainty, the more firms are likely to engage in a closer relationship with technology suppliers. Even though the majority of the firms reported improvements in their performance, results indicate that firms demonstrating a closer relationship with the technology suppliers are more likely to achieved higher levels of performance than those that do not. The results also show that with high levels of transaction attribute, implementation performance suffers more when firms have weak relationships with technology suppliers than with moderate and low levels of transaction attributes.