Actionable and enduring contribution of Oliver Williamson’s transaction cost theory to international business

Oliver E. Williamson (1932–2020), joint recipient of the 2009 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, has been the main intellectual force driving the application of transaction cost economics (TCE) in a variety of management and business research subfields, including international business strategy (IBS). The Academy of International Business (AIB) bestowed upon him the Eminent Scholar Award in 2003. TCE, more broadly referred to as Transaction Cost Theory (TCT), is one of the core building blocks of modern IBS research. There is an easy fit between TCT and mainstream approaches in the field, including internalization theory and the eclectic paradigm, but other international business theorizing can also be reinterpreted, at least in part, in TCT terms (Kano & Verbeke, 2019; Narula, Asmussen, Chi, & Kundu, 2019). Our analysis is meant to be a tribute to Oliver Williamson. We do not attempt as others have (e.g. Cuypers, Hennart, Silverman, & Ertug, 2021) to provide a complete description of Williamson’s conceptual thinking, rather, we identify several of Williamson’s distinct intellectual contributions and their enduring and actionable implications for IBS research.