Blind Men, Elephants, and Strategic Alliance Social Dilemmas: Evidence of Value Asymmetry Comparing Professional Purchasing Managers and Master Business Students

Abstract:     
Burgeoning interest in the social dilemma paradigm by strategic management and operations management scholars has led to two research questions: First, is cooperative strategies used by alliance partners perceived as social dilemmas? Second, if cooperative strategies are perceived as social dilemmas, is this perception robust as a function of work experience? We examine whether senior executives and business master students experience value symmetry in strategic alliance social dilemmas. Each sample was asked to assess the costs and benefits to the individual partner and the alliance when pooling nine resources common in strategic alliances. Results indicate value asymmetry between professionals and students: students perceive that sharing all nine resources have the properties of a social dilemma; while professionals perceive four of the nine resources as such. Implications for the applying the social dilemma paradigm to strategic alliance management and, more generally, behavioral strategy are discussed.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 16

working papers series