Browsing by Subject "Reciprocity"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Restricted
    Animal personality and biological markets: rise of the individual
    (2009) Jacobs, David S
    The last decade has seen the emergence of two new developments in behavioural ecology: the discovery of animal personalities and a new approach to the analyses of animal behaviour, biological markets. Although both regard individual differences in behaviour as adaptive in their own right, these two developments appear, at first glance, to be opposing approaches to analysing animal behaviour. Personalities consist of suites of behaviours that are correlated across situations (e.g. some animals are consistently more or less aggressive across situations than other animals) and assumes that animals are limited in their response to their environment. By contrast, the biological market approach considers organisms as traders of commodities (e.g. food or grooming) where the exchange rates of commodities changes with time and is influenced by shifts in the abundance and demand for the commodity, as happens in human markets. Biological markets thus view animal behaviour as extremely plastic whereas the putative existence of animal personalities suggests that animal behaviour may be relatively inflexible. However, the two approaches may be more similar than heretofore realized and may be complementary rather than opposing. Here I briefly review each approach and show how animal personalities can arise from a biological market situation.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Metadata only
    Fairness and Accountability: Testing Models of Social Norms in Unequal
    (Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, 2015-05-28) Visser, Martine
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Open Access
    Reciprocity in contract law
    (Juta, 2013-03-01) Hutchison, Andrew
    Most modern contracts are bilateral in nature, implying a mutual exchange of promises in content. This raises the question of when such promises create obligations which can be said to be reciprocal. Furthermore, what remedy will a party have if a reciprocal performance is not forthcoming? This article aims to explore the concept of reciprocity in contracts historically and comparatively to demonstrate its impact on contract law worldwide. This will involve an excursus of the major contract law rules which this principle underlies. The contribution will explore in brief the major problem areas in South Africa (and worldwide) where reciprocity plays a determinative role. The main argument is that reciprocity, in the sense of fairness in exchange, is central to many South African contracts, without it contractual validity may be threatened and enforceability is lost.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Open Access
    Towards a grounded theory of why and how coopetition emerges among SMEs: revisiting intentionality and unintentionality
    (2024) Kauami, Ngunoue Cynthia; Samuelsson, Mikael
    Over the past three decades, there has been growing research interest in coopetition. Coopetition is an intricate network of interdependencies among firms, where intentional and unintentional cooperation and competition occur concurrently. This occurs towards the achievement of diverse yet mutually advantageous recurring economic and/or altruistic objectives, endorsing a paradoxical relationship. While research has advanced, little remains known about the fundamentals of the emergence of coopetition. This study uses strategy-as practice and processual lenses to consider why and how coopetition emerges, delving into the lived experiences of tourism business owners/managers to allow for a micro-foundational view of emergence. Using a qualitative constructivist grounded theory approach, data were collected among small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and analysed over a period of one year at the tourism destinations of Swakopmund and Walvis Bay in Namibia. Theoretical saturation was attained at 89 episodes of emergence, since emergence was adopted as the level analysis. The study found three typologies of coopetition emergence: economic, altruistic, and habitual coopetition. Economic coopetition emergence, underlined by resource deficiency, alliance and diversification logics is confirmed in extant literature and has been considered as the dominant reason for competitors engaging collaboratively. This typology emerges both intentionally and unintentionally. Altruistic coopetition emergence, that is driven by solidarity and identity logics confirms and extends recent studies which maintain that there are non-economic reasons for coopetition emergence. This typology was found to emerge unintentionally. Economic and altruistic emergence have recurring patterns over time, which give rise to habitual coopetition emergence. This coopetition type is indicative of practices that become embedded and implicitly institutionalised as modus operandi with consistent reciprocal recurrence driven by economic and altruistic logics, albeit mutually exclusively. Emergence is a process that unfolds in four overarching phases: the selection, negotiation, delivery, and review phases, which are foundational expressions of how the three typologies manifest, confirming its episodic nature which can be deemed to go through “life cycles”. The study contributes to the coopetition literature in general, and specifically to the formation stage by strengthening the non-economic rationale of emergence through presenting care ethics, considered in psychology and social neurosciences. Furthermore, habitual emergence advances path dependence, trust and reciprocity literature and the significant role of time in coopetition intent. From a practical perspective, the study contributes to increased managerial insights into the best ways to structure coopetition, considering the different typologies and emergence processes for enhanced financial and non-financial benefits. In addition, it furthers the idea of sustained coopetitive relationships among firms in general, and among small and medium enterprises (SMEs) specifically.