BEYOND THE MODERATOR: RECIPROCAL CALIBRATION IN DIGITALLY MEDIATED B2B EXCHANGE

Abstract

Reciprocity is a condition that business partners constantly calibrate, strengthening exchange only inside a calibration window. It is not a number that they just have more or less of. Although empirical research still treats reciprocity as a single moderating variable measured from one side of the dyad, social exchange theory (SET) views it as the driving force of business-to-business (B2B) partnerships. This paper develops a theory of reciprocal calibration the continuous, dyadic process through which partners align the equivalency, immediacy, symmetry, and visibility of what they give and receive, based on the limitations and unexpected results of Ren et al. (2025), where reciprocity strengthened four of seven exchange pathways, did nothing for three, and was negatively associated with cultural similarity and firm size. We contend that the moderating impact becomes null or negative beyond the calibration window due to over-embeddedness, size-driven dilution, excessive digital interaction, and perceptual asymmetry. We establish a research agenda employing dyadic, configurational, and longitudinal methods and extract 10 propositions, three curvilinear predictions, and a five-regime typology (Calibrated Partnerships, Tacit Reciprocators, Over-embedded Cliques, Transactional Ledgers, Asymmetric Dependencies).