Making the Pie and Spliting the Pie: Joint Value Creation and Opportunism in Volatile Environment

Abstract

In this study, we specifically unveiled the relationship between joint value creation and opportunism from a new, choice-based perspective. We argued that in a given interorganizational relationship, both joint value creation and opportunism are partner firms’ strategic choices, which benefit these firms following different rationales and are determined by different considerations. Using a specific setting—the way in which interorganizational relationships work in volatile environment, we show that in an interorganizational relationship, environmental volatility can simultaneously encourage partners’ joint value creation and opportunism. Further, we show that the structural features of the relationship, such as interdependence between partners and the presence of managerial personal ties, largely affect joint value creation and opportunism in distinct ways.