Research findings suggest that transacting parties-even sizable business firmsprefer personalized over contractual control (Macaulay 1963). Still, the long history and popularity of prenuptial agreements and wills (Barber 1983, pp. 30, 40-43) suggest that contract plays a role even in transactions most securely embedded in structures of social relations.

XREF: Connects to relational contract theory and embeddedness literature (Granovetter), plus classic sociolegal work on when law is used vs. avoided in ongoing relations.

Shapiro, Susan P., The Social Control of Imper…, loc. 45