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Markets and Corporate Conflict: A Substitution-Cost Approach to Business Litigation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 December 2018

Jacob E. Gersen
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Abstract

This paper examines the phenomenon of conflict escalation in business relations. A theory of when conflict between firms will proceed from informal relationship-preserving norms to more formal and destructive end games involving litigation is developed and tested. The central theoretical claim is that substitution costs serve as an impediment against the escalation of conflict. Data on market concentration and dollar flows between aggregate markets in the economy are used to develop measures of substitution costs. Measures of substitution costs and trade figures are also used to describe power advantages in markets. The theory is tested through a series of regression models. The main findings are that (1) when substitution costs are high, parties are less likely to escalate conflict and (2) asymmetric market relations result in less conflict escalation than symmetric ones. Empirical analysis indicates that substitution costs are related in predictable and meaningful ways to conflict escalation and business litigation.

Type
Student Prize Winner
Information
Law & Social Inquiry , Volume 24 , Issue 3 , Summer 1999 , pp. 589 - 609
Copyright
Copyright © American Bar Foundation, 1999 

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