Countertrade: Compensatory Requests to Sell Abroad

The term 'countertrade' refers to a set of (commercial) agreements between a buyer and a seller in which the primary transaction is accompanied by a variety of additional conditions. This trade form is very relevant: the estimates provided by the literature show that up to 30% of the total value of international transactions depends on these agreements (Hammond, 1990; Forker, 1996; Hennart and Anderson, 1993). Most of the existing studies focus on some countertrade forms (mainly barter and counterpurchase) and mainly analyse legal or macroeconomic aspects of these agreements, whilst analyses of their organisational and managerial implications are rare. The purpose of this work is to develop the first classification of the compensatory requests used in 'offset' agreements, which are among the most important, complex and least-documented countertrade forms. The study is also aimed at identifying some unexplored issues to be analysed in future researches.