Challenges of Global Environmental Regulation in B2B Trade: Empirical insight from Contractual Incompleteness

초록

Purpose-This study examines how governance mechanisms in SMEs reduce export contractual incompleteness and affect firm performance under environmental regulatory uncertainty. It focuses on relational and contractual governance, environmental data readiness, asset specificity, and the mediating role of contractual incompleteness. Design/Methodology-Data were collected from 417 Korean SME exporters. Three-Stage Least Squares (3SLS) was employed to address simultaneity and endogeneity. The model also tested the moderating effects of environmental data readiness and asset specificity and the mediating effect of contractual incompleteness. Findings-The results reveal that: (1) shared governance and contractual safeguards significantly reduce contractual incompleteness and operate complementarily; (2) environmental data readiness strengthens the path between governance mechanisms but shows no significant moderating effect on performance; (3) asset specificity amplifies both inter-governance effects and the reduction of contractual incompleteness; and (4) contractual incompleteness partially mediates the relationship between governance mechanisms and performance, indicating that both relational and contractual governance contribute directly and indirectly to performance improvement. Originality/Value-This study identifies environmental regulation as exogenous uncertainty in export transactions and shows that relational and contractual governance reduce contractual incompleteness. The simultaneous relationships among governance, incompleteness, and performance are examined using 3SLS, with environmental data readiness and asset specificity considered. The findings suggest practical ways to design environmental clauses, renegotiation procedures, supplier support, and cost-sharing provisions.

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