Journal of Business Ethics

, Volume 104, Issue 1, pp 47–58 | Cite as

When does Ethical Code Enforcement Matter in the Inter-Organizational Context? The Moderating Role of Switching Costs

  • Scott R. Colwell
  • Michael J. Zyphur
  • Marshall Schminke
Article
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Accepted:

Abstract

Drawing on signaling theory, we suggest that a supplier’s enforcement of ethical codes sends signals about the supplier that affect a buyer’s decision to continue their commitment to the supplier. We then draw on side-bet theory to hypothesize how switching costs influence the importance of a supplier’s enforcement of ethical codes in predicting a buyer’s continuance commitment to a supplier. We empirically test our model with data from 158 purchasing managers across three manufacturing industries. Results confirm the connection between ethical code enforcement and continuance commitment, but suggest that a supplier’s enforcement of ethical codes matter less when switching suppliers is perceived as too costly.

Keywords

Ethical code enforcement Switching costs Commitment Inter-organizational relationships 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) for its financial support of this research.

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011

Authors and Affiliations

  • Scott R. Colwell
    • 1
  • Michael J. Zyphur
    • 2
  • Marshall Schminke
    • 3
  1. 1.College of Management and EconomicsUniversity of GuelphGuelphCanada
  2. 2.NUS Business SchoolNational University of SingaporeSingaporeSingapore
  3. 3.College of Business AdministrationUniversity of Central FloridaOrlandoUSA

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