Integrating Variable Risk Preferences, Trust, and Transaction Cost Economics

Transaction cost economics (TCE) relies on three behavioral assumptions in predicting how firms choose governance structures—bounded rationality, opportunism, and risk neutrality. We explore the implications of the neglected behavioral assumption of risk neutrality. offer an integrative appraisal of the three behavioral assumptions using trust as a unifying perspective, and explicate subjective costs and risks. We illustrate the relative ease with which previous empirical shortcomings can be addressed by incorporating risk and trust in TCE models.