Agent gender and firm compliance in relational exchanges

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether a gender effect exists in firm compliance decisions in relational supply chain exchanges.Design/methodology/approach – To test the authors' hypotheses, a scenario‐based experiment was conducted with undergraduate and graduate business students from three different US universities. The data were analyzed using multiple regression analyses.Findings – The results show that after controlling for the control variables, a gender effect on compliance in the buyer‐supplier relationship was found. This finding indicates support for the gender role hypothesis and not for the gender stereotype or gender equality hypotheses.Originality/value – Compliance in relational exchanges has been studied over the last few years. However, the literature is vacuous of gender effect studies in firm compliance decisions. The paper fills a void in the literature by reporting on the existence of gender effect in compliance decisions in relational supply chain exchanges.