Opportunism

About: Opportunism is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 2030 publications have been published within this topic receiving 97170 citations. The topic is also known as: opportunist.

The Use of Accommodation in Buyer–Seller Relationships: Encouraging or Controlling Opportunism in Business Markets Middle-grounds

Abstract: Purpose: In the past decades, marketing researchers have explored different strategies to control opportunism in buyer–seller relationships. Accommodation, the cooperative response to partners’ exploitive behavior in exchange relationships, has received increasing attention from research on interfirm relationships. However, less is known about whether accommodation is an effective response strategy for controlling opportunism. Drawing on the self-enforcing agreement literature, this article focuses on exploring (1) what drives a firm’s accommodation response to its partner’s exploitive behavior, (2) how a firm’s accommodation helps govern its exchange partner’s opportunistic behavior, and (3) whether monitoring magnifies or buffers the effect of accommodation on the exchange partners’ opportunism.Methodology: The survey data were collected from 173 seller-firms in Guangdong, Shanghai, Beijing, Wuhan, and Zhengzhou, representing the south, east, north, and middle regions of China. The initial quest...

Innovation systems, innovation modes and processes of commercialization

Abstract: Because actions to promote innovation by definition have open-ended outcomes, there is a considerable uncertainty connected to calculation of private investments in R&D to promote innovation. Recently, by Malerba and others, attempts have been made to overcome this uncertainty with reference to the predictability provided by technological regimes. The institutionalization of technological regimes, so the story goes, in some sectors create conditions for sector-specific private appropriation of knowledge which results in Schumpeter II type of firms. Here, the uncertainties of innovation is contained by hierarchy. In the current phase of globalization, China successfully applies knowledge accumulation strategies to first copy and secondly through price competition out-compete most Western industrial sectors. In this situation, strategies of private knowledge appropriation should not be seen as carved in stone. Instead, the diffusion of technological regimes beyond the borders of firms enables make-or-buy experiments which results in dynamics of co-evolution, co-specialization and co-optation of different strategies of innovation. These heterogeneities when it comes to strategies of innovation do not just evolve between, as Pavitt pointed out, buy also inside sectors. Based on Norwegian data (CIS2000, Creditinform 2002) and with reference to a recent analysis undertaken by MERIT, the paper analyzes this differentiation of strategies of innovation among Norwegian firms. Two basic strategies of coping with actions under uncertainty are identified: opportunism and adaptation. These strategies must be seen in the context of the long-term dynamics they are involved in, which creates experimental combinations of knowledge appropriation, knowledge outsourcing and knowledge externalization. The analysis highlights the significance of small firms specializing in innovation and investing heavily in R&D for the rest of the economy. “Most firms are unable to make very rational calculations about any one project because of the uncertainty which is inherent in the process, because they lack the information necessary for rational behaviour and because they lack the time and the inclination to get it or to use very complex methods of assessment.” (Freeman 1986).

Antecedents and consequences of mutual trust in PPPs

Abstract: This article aims to identify the antecedents and consequences of mutual trust in public-private partnerships (PPPs), making use of the theory of mutual trust to develop the conceptual model. The article then tests hypotheses to find the role of trust in PPPs and also to identify the antecedents and consequences. Data have been collected from personnel working in government, corporate and non-profit sectors related to a post-earthquake psychological rehabilitation program in China. A total of 234 usable responses have been obtained with a return rate of 69.2%. The results of structural equation modeling show that while mutual communication, corporate reputation, and shared value influence mutual trust between partners positively, opportunism exerts negative influence on trust; in addition, trust also influences performance, commitment, and long-term relationships between partners. We conclude that mutual trust eliminates opportunism and increases confidence between partners, leading to improved in...

Why reputation is not always beneficial: Tolerance and opportunism in business networks

Abstract: Many researchers in economics as well as sociology have stressed the important role of business networks for cooperation, trust, and performance. This claim is based on solid theoretical arguments as well as empirical findings. However, neither theory nor the selective empirical results support the view that networks are always beneficial for economic transactions. This paper begins with an observation that for the purchase of IT products, network embeddedness leads to even more problems for the customer. In order to explain this effect, possible reasons for this phenomenon are discussed using theory as well as empirics. The most promising explanation for this special case is the effect of uncertainty and incomplete information ex post. In order to reduce this uncertainty, the buyer forms beliefs on the basis of the opinions existing in a shared network or group. However, if the network members have the same problem of uncertainty, suppliers have an incentive to reduce their performance because such behavior will not be detected and sanctioned. An analysis of the customer's tolerance to a supplier's behavior in business transactions yields support for this argument. Even if problems in a transaction are kept constant, customers give suppliers more reputational credit if they share a common network.

Human Capital Measurement, Ambiguity, and Opportunism: Actors between Menace and Opportunity:

Abstract: Under the growing influence of economic normative thoughts (as for example the spread of shareholder value philosophy in the 1990s) and therefore under pressure to justify themselves, human resource management professionals are searching for concepts to measure the effects of their decisions and activities on business objectives. Especially, the concepts of human capital measurement attract far-reaching attention. However, that performance measurement of human resource management faces considerable methodical problems leading to the distinctive ambiguity of human capital information. In the face of this ambiguity, the paper points out that human capital measurement tends to promote opportunistic patterns of behavior by offering opportunities to evade personal responsibility. Referring to the model of organizational anarchy, the paper shows that human capital measurement is in danger to evoke a dilution of responsibilities in organizations. But a comprehensive institutionalization and a deliberate “framing” of human capital measurement can contribute to the limitation of opportunism.