BREAKING THE LETTER VS. SPIRIT OF THE LAW: HOW THE INTERPRETATION OF CONTRACT VIOLATIONS AFFECTS TRUST AND THE MANAGEMENT OF RELATIONSHIPS

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Harmon, Derek J.; Kim, Peter H.; Mayer, Kyle J.
• 署名单位: University of Southern California
• 刊物名称: STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0143-2095
• DOI: 10.1002/smj.2231
• 发表日期: 2015
• 页码: 497-517
• 关键词: Contracts; VIOLATIONS; intentionality; trust; relationship management

摘要

Contract violations are ubiquitous. There has been little attention, however, dedicated to understanding the mechanisms involved in making sense of and addressing such occurrences. Two experimental studies investigated how people interpret contract violations and how these interpretations affect trust and the management of relationships. By drawing on the distinction between violations of the letter versus spirit of the law, we show that letter violations are more difficult to overcome than spirit violations, due to higher perceived intentionality. These effects generalized across different populations, levels of contracting experience, types of contracting contexts, levels of ambiguity within the contract, and degrees of contract complexity. The results yield important implications for understanding contract violations, trust, and organizational responses as a relationship management capability. Copyright (c) 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.