Overview

The Cost of Commitment examines the hidden economics of strategic vendor commitments before they are signed. Drawing on decades of research in transaction cost economics, bargaining theory, procurement, customer success, and technology implementation, it identifies a class of post-signature costs that conventional diligence rarely isolates, organizes those costs into five measurable components, and demonstrates how they can materially alter the economics of a multi-year vendor relationship.

The result is a different way of evaluating strategic commitments: not simply as technology purchases, but as long-term economic relationships whose full cost can be better understood before commitment.