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.

Putnam's Social Capital Theory Goes East: A Case Study of Western Ukraine and L'viv

Abstract: attempts to test Putnam's theory explicitly in the analysis of post-socialist politiesmost notably former East Germany-attention has been directed more towards his equilibrium thesis of 'virtuous' and 'vicious' circles. While stressing Putnam's neglect of factors such as institutional design and third-party enforcement,4 the focus in current analyses has been less on the issue of social capital as such and the micro-sociological underpinnings of non-communitarian social capital. The latter is the topic of this article. Therefore, rather than asking ourselves 'what is the importance of social capital to successful democratisation', the proper question to pose in our case should be 'exactly what is it in the nature of social capital in post-socialist societies that makes people less inclined to invest trust in formal democratic institutions?' Putnam's own reply is that 'sanctions that support norms of reciprocity against threat of opportunism are less likely to be imposed upwards and less likely to be acceded to, if imposed' in the kind of particularistic and vertical networks from which negative social capital breeds.5 Contrary to Putnam's argument, though, we hold that lack of trust in formal institutions is not due primarily to difficulties in implementing sanctions in social networks. Although Putnam was right in focusing on the exchange relations that constitute the backbone of these networks, the important point is actually that communitarian and non-communitarian social capital draw on two different modes of reducing social transaction costs. It is this difference rather than the problem of sanctions that accounts for the difficulties of transforming non-communitarian social

The effect of interorganizational trust on make‐or‐cooperate decisions: Disentangling opportunism‐dependent and opportunism‐independent effects of trust

Abstract: This paper seeks to analyze the effects of interorganizational trust on the decision to vertically integrate a strategically important activity (‘make’) or sign a long-term agreement with an external exchange partner to perform such an activity in collaboration (‘cooperate’). On the basis of the literature available on interorganizational trust in economics and sociology, we aim at theoretically and empirically disentangling opportunism-based and opportunism-independent effects of trust on governance choices. We develop a set of hypotheses on the moderating and direct roles of trust, which are tested using a sample of integration/collaboration decisions made by Austrian and German automotive suppliers. The results confirm both an opportunism-mitigating effect of trust that lowers the transaction costs of a collaborative exchange and an opportunism-independent effect that increases the transaction value of a collaborative exchange and also encompasses non-economic motives for collaboration.

Resource mobilization and performance in family and non-family businesses in the United Kingdom

Abstract: We draw on agency theory and the resource-based view to hypothesize that family and non-family businesses differ in the capital they deploy and the way they deploy it, and test this in a large UK sample of 319 family business and 258 non-family business owner/managers. We find that adverse selection, opportunism and niche marginalization is more prevalent among family business owner/managers. Yet their businesses are similar to their non-family business peers in performance outcomes such as size and growth. We suggest that weaknesses in human and financial capital choice are offset by strengths in the social capital of family firms.