RECIPROCITY IN INTERNATIONAL-BUSINESS - A STUDY OF TELECOMMUNICATIONSALLIANCES AND CONTRACTS

Reciprocity has been identified as a ''messy'' concept to study within international cooperative ventures, Theoretically grounded in interna tional cooperation, transaction cast theory and economic anthropology, reciprocity is operationalized and explored in this study. Specifical ly, the effects of cultured distance, economic nearness, country-level risk and governance mechanisms are analyzed in relationships to three distinct measure of reciprocity. The international long distance indu stry provides the research setting. During the 1980s and 1990s, as thi s industry has become more competitive within the United States, forei gn partners have been slow to; reciprocate regarding the sharing of re venues derived from increased overseas calling. To study reciprocity, between Us international long distance carriers and their partnering f oreign entities, a pooled time-series/cross-sectional technique is use d. 11 years of contractual arrangements between the U.S. firms and the telecom administrations of 109 countries are analyzed. Governance mec hanisms test as highly significant with all measures of reciprocity, w hile the other independent variables exhibit varying degrees of signif icance with the respective dependent measures.