Risks and reputations: the economics of transaction costs

Uncertainty means that transaction costs have to be incurred by organisations whenever they make an agreement. These costs include time and money spent searching, drawing up and enforcing contracts and in dealing with contingencies. The concept of transaction costs is traced from its originator, economist Ronald Coase, to its more recent development by David Kreps. Good reputations, themselves a product of successful corporate communications activities, tend to reduce internal and external transaction costs. Given a competitive environment those firms with lower transaction costs, as a result of high reputations, will tend to survive better than those with weak ones.