Also, the form of the relationship contributes to the
preference for contract distribution. In each situation a
different kind of relationship will prevail. In situation (3)
the relationship will be characterized by additional
safeguards to protect the transaction-specific investments.
These safeguards can be built into certain types of
relationship, such as logistics partnerships, joint ventures
or strategic alliances. Situation (2) will be accompanied
by additional monitoring facilities, to limit the possibility
of opportunistic behaviour. One possibility is the
establishment of an EDI network. As information systems
become accessible, the possibility of monitoring increases
and, with that, the possibility for the distribution contractor
to behave opportunistically decreases[38]. This leads to
the following proposition: