Exchange Norms Research Articles

A Cultural Psychology of Agency: Morality, Motivation, and Reciprocity

We highlight the need to culturally broaden psychological theories of social development in providing an overview of our programs of cross-cultural research on interpersonal morality, motivation, and reciprocity. Our research demonstrates that whereas Americans tend to treat interpersonal morality as a matter of personal choice, Indians tend to treat it as a role-related duty. Furthermore, Americans associate greater satisfaction with acting autonomously than with acting to fulfill social expectations, whereas Indians associate high levels of satisfaction with both types of cases. We also demonstrate that cultural variation exists in reliance on communal norms versus reciprocal exchange norms in everyday social support interactions among American, Indian, and Japanese populations, with these norms providing a background for contrasting experiences of agency. In conclusion, we highlight the contributions of cultural research to basic psychological theory. Although cultural research provides greater awareness of diversity in psychological functioning, its fundamental value is to contribute new insights into the theoretical formulations and methodological stances adopted in the discipline more generally.

A cross-cultural perspective on relational exchange

PurposeThis study aims to examine relational norms in cross-cultural business settings. Cross-cultural business partners may differ in their normative orientations toward relational exchange. Owing to the high extent of international trade, there is a need for developing a more nuanced understanding of cross-cultural relational exchange.Design/methodology/approachThe repertory grid method was used to elicit the personal constructs characterizing the perceptions of business-to-business (B2B) relational exchange for 22 Russian and Finnish managers. These items were further categorized into categories of relational elements drawn from relational exchange literature using a content analysis. Then, the category means of scored importance and scored evaluations of domestic and foreign business partners were tested statistically.FindingsRelational norms of flexibility, information exchange, long-term orientation, mutuality and solidarity were equally important to both Russian and Finnish managers. The importance of a business partner’s ability seems to be culturally dependent. Sharing the same cultural background might have an adverse effect when evaluating poorly functioning business relations.Research limitations/implicationsThe validity of these findings is limited to this context and material. Future research should repeat cross-cultural comparisons of the relational norms with more data and other nationalities.Practical implicationsFirms should focus on long-term orientation and mutual targets to form well-functioning cross-cultural business relationships.Originality/valueThis study provides new knowledge into B2B marketing literature by revealing the role of relational norms, business partner’s ability and shared cultural background on functionality of cross-cultural business relations. It also demonstrates the use of the repertory grid method in studying perceptions of relational norms.

Cultural variation in communal versus exchange norms: Implications for social support.

Whereas an interdependent cultural view of self has been linked to communal norms and to socially supportive behavior, its relationship to social support has been called into question in research suggesting that discomfort in social support is associated with an interdependent cultural view of self (e.g., Taylor et al., 2004). These contrasting claims were addressed in 2 studies conducted among Japanese, Indian, and American adults. Assessing everyday social support, Study 1 showed that Japanese and Americans rely on exchange norms more frequently than Indians among friends, whereas American rely on exchange norms more frequently than Indians and Japanese among siblings. Assessing responses to vignettes, Study 2 demonstrated that Japanese and Americans rely more frequently on exchange norms than Indians, with greatest relational concerns and most negative outlooks on social support observed among Japanese, less among Americans, and least among Indians. Results further indicated that relational concerns mediated the link between exchange norms and negative social support outlooks. Supporting past claims that relational concerns explain cultural variation in discomfort in social support (e.g., Kim, Sherman, & Taylor, 2008), the findings underscore the need to take into account as well the role of exchange norms in explaining such discomfort. The findings also highlight the existence of culturally variable approaches to exchange and call into question claims that discomfort in social support can be explained in terms of the global concept of an interdependent cultural view of self. (PsycINFO Database Record

Relationship norms and media gratification in relational brand communication

Brands are increasingly engaging in relational communications, which are personalized or privative messages sent to regular customers as part of a company's relationship marketing strategies. However, little is known regarding the underlying processes governing the creation of targeted relational outcomes. Drawing on the social theory of relationship norms, this study shows that by influencing the nature of media gratification, contextual communal norms rather than exchange norms have a stronger effect on how gratification contributes to attitudes toward the media and brand gratitude as significant media-related antecedents of brand commitment. Of particular interest, this study reveals that communal media gratification (in contrast to exchange media gratification) contributes the most to gratitude outcomes, whereas it only slightly influences media attitudes. The implications of these findings are significant for brand communication researchers and managers.

Why and when do employees imitate the absenteeism of co-workers?

We aimed to shed light on the reason why individual employees adjust their absence levels to their co-workers’ absence behavior and under what conditions imitation is most likely by integrating social learning theory and social exchange theory. In Study 1, a vignette study among 299 employees, we found that respondents were more likely to call in sick when coworkers were often absent because respondents had more tolerant absence norms and more economic as opposed to cooperative exchange norms. This study also showed that employees strongly disapproved of absence and had stronger cooperative exchange norms when they worked in highly cohesive and task interdependent teams. In Study 2, a field study in 97 teams, we found that coworker absence was less strongly imitated under conditions of high cohesiveness and task interdependency. Our findings suggest that employee behavior is not only influenced by team norms about acceptable absence levels, but also by norms on what level of cooperation is expected.

The influence of desire for control on monitoring decisions and performance outcomes in strategic alliances

Strategic alliances are fraught with risks, such as the uncontrolled disclosure of core knowledge via opportunistic learning. The usefulness of monitoring in policing opportunism notwithstanding, a contrasting view is that monitoring mechanisms can themselves manifest the dark side of strategic alliances. The present study argues that a novel dark personality trait—the focal firm's desire for control—may influence key decisions pertaining to how to monitor strategic alliances, which in turn can negatively impact performance outcomes. Our conceptual model was developed and tested, based on a survey of 404 strategic alliances. The results demonstrate that a focal firm's desire for control is positively associated with process monitoring as well as output monitoring. The firm's use of process monitoring to oversee the counterpart drives its performance outcomes only if there is a low level of information exchange between the alliance partners; as such, information exchange norms substitute for process monitoring. By contrast, the focal firm's use of outcome monitoring is negatively linked to performance unless complemented by a high level of information exchange. Key implications for alliance management and future research are derived from the findings.

Organizational supports and individuals commitments through work integrated learning

Purpose – The development of individual work competencies through work integrated learning (WIL) emanates from expectations of students to learn from both the workplace and their educational institution, and an assumption that WIL stakeholders will support them. This exchange between individuals and organizational insiders, according to the social exchange norm of reciprocity, may also nurture organizational behaviors. WIL student-workers may perceive support from insiders, and orient their behaviors to increase their contribution to the host organization in terms of performance, by developing specific bonds of commitment toward different targets. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – By designing a “WIL perception of workplace support system” including four core stakeholders as a predictor of bonds of commitments, the author tested these relationships on a sample of 2,457 co-op students enrolled in a North American University. Findings – Results globally supported the hypotheses. Student-workers perception of co-workers and supervisor supports developed commitment to team. Student-workers perception of co-workers, supervisor, and organizational supports developed commitment to the host organization and to the work. However, the effect of perception of University support on commitment to host organization and to work was non-significant. Originality/value – Given the lack of studies in the WIL field from an organizational approach, the author propose to investigate what supports are perceived by WIL student-workers, and whether these supports develop specific bonds of commitment.

Information Security Compliance Behaviour of Supply Chain Stakeholders

Supply chain security is an emerging topic in the supply chain management literature. Information security is a key component of supply chain security, and this study aims to identify the factors that influence the compliance behaviour with respect to information security. A related objective is to understand the extent to which compliance was substantive or symbolic. Adopting a qualitative approach, the authors conducted semi-structured interviews with stakeholders based in New Zealand who are involved in international supply chains. The interviews find that compliance behaviour is affected by the influence of other organizations, organizational perceptions of compliance, and the rules and norms of exchange in different contexts. The results also indicate that compliance behaviour is more symbolic than substantive in the supply chain environment.

Aligning end-to-end seafood supply through a series of markets

This study considers the alignment of commodity-like goods in seafood networks by analysing the exchange economy embedded in a set of sequentially interdependent markets. A case study in seafood production is analysed from an end-to-end perspective in the flow of seafood from Norway to Japan to investigate how practitioners describe trading and the terminology used on trading embedded across the complete supply network. Four subcases that focus on how goods are traded are studied. Two subcases consider raw material supply, aquaculture-supplied salmon and wild-caught pelagic fish. The third subcase concerns the export of frozen mackerel to Japan, and the final subcase concerns seafood trading at a regional wholesale market in Japan. Analysis is based on the view that in supply an exchange (management) economy is distinct from a production (value-creation) economy, and these economies are interdependent. The fundamental importance of sequential interdependencies in seafood production is demonstrated. The four subcases are first analysed individually, applying relational contracting theory to understand patterns of exchange leading to transfer of title at markets. Developed relationships and trust, but also an acceptance of partner switching, characterizes exchange in all four market-related subcases. An understanding of how these loosely coupled markets may be viewed as aligned is developed. Markets emerge as nodes in the supply network with complex patterns of exchange facilitated by well-developed business relationships where a common norm is acceptance of disloyalty not impeding trust. These norms of exchange facilitate agile seafood distribution.

Can money heal all wounds? Social exchange norm modulates the preference for monetary versus social compensation.

Compensation is a kind of pro-social behavior that can restore a social relationship jeopardized by interpersonal transgression. The effectiveness of a certain compensation strategy (e.g., repaying money, sharing loss, etc.) may vary as a function of the social norm/relationship. Previous studies have shown that two types of norms (or relationships), monetary/exchange and social/communal, differentially characterize people’s appraisal of and response to social exchanges. In this study, we investigated how individual differences in preference for these norms affect individuals’ perception of others’ as well as the selection of their own reciprocal behaviors. In a two-phase experiment with interpersonal transgression, we asked the participant to perform a dot-estimation task with two partners who occasionally and unintentionally inflicted noise stimulation upon the participant (first phase). As compensation one partner gave money to the participant 80% of the time (the monetary partner) and the other bore the noise for the participant 80% of the time (the social partner). Results showed that the individuals’ preference for compensation (repaying money versus bearing noise) affected their relationship (exchange versus communal) with the partners adopting different compensation strategies: participants tended to form communal relationships and felt closer to the partner whose compensation strategy matched their own preference. The participants could be differentiated into a social group, who tended to form communal relationship with the social partner, and a monetary group, who tended to form communal relationship with the monetary partner. In the second phase of the experiment, when the participants became transgressors and were asked to compensate for their transgression with money, the social group offered more compensation to the social partners than to the monetary partners, while the monetary group compensated less than the social group in general and showed no difference in their offers to the monetary and social partners. These findings demonstrate that the effectiveness of compensation varies as a function of individuals’ preference for communal versus monetary norm and that monetary compensation alone does not heal all wounds.

Building the Social Structure of a Market

Motivated by the question of how to develop viable new markets and value chains in the resource-constrained settings of least developed countries, we adopted multi-year qualitative methods to examine the intervention of a nongovernmental organization (NGO) in developing the dairy value chain in Bangladesh. Consistent with the theoretical premise that markets and value chains are social orders, we found that the NGO’s success relied on building the social structure of a market wherein market participants could negotiate relationships and norms of production and exchange and embed them in practices and technologies. To establish social structure among participants as a means of market building, the NGO acquired relevant knowledge, then used contextual bridging (transferring new meanings, practices and structures into a given context in a way that is sensitive to the norms, practices, knowledge and relationships that exist in that context), brokering relationships along the value chain (facilitating introductions and exchanges between value chain members) and funding experimentation (providing resources to test ideas and assumptions about new market practices). Market participants themselves also contributed to the development of the market’s social structure by means of social embedding (building relationships and negotiating norms of exchange and coordination), and material embedding (implementing technologies and practices and integrating market norms into technology). Increased productivity and equity and reduced costs of transactions resulted from the creation of a social structure that, in this case, preceded and enabled the economic structuring of a market rather than the other way around.

An unexpected patron: A social-scientific and realistic reading of the parable of the Vineyard Labourers (Mt 20:1–15)

Many readings of the Parable of the Labourers in the vineyard want to treat the owner as representing God. Knowledge of actual agricultural practices relating to the management of vineyards suggest, on the contrary, that the details of the parable obstruct an easy identification of the owner with God, and that he displays unusual behaviour not only by paying all the labourers the same wage, but by his very intervention in the hiring process. The conclusion reached is that the parable constructs the vineyard owner, typically one of the nouveau riche who lived in cities, not only as a ‘good employer’ but also, contrary to expectation, as a patron who intervened well beyond the strict norms of economic exchange.

Intuitions About Contract Formation

Legally, much depends on the moment that a negotiation becomes a deal. Unlike torts or civil procedure or any area of public law, the laws of promissory exchange only apply to parties who have manifested their assent to be bound. Even so, the moral norms of exchange and promise are quite firmly entrenched and more broadly applicable than just legal contracts. Norms of promise-keeping and reciprocity, interpersonal courtesy, community reputation — these kinds of intangible goods have real effects on contract behavior. For this reason it is especially surprising that intuitions about formation have gotten so little attention from legal and behavioral scholars. This paper offers five new empirical studies of commonsense approaches to contract formation. The first section of this Article surveys intuitions about what the law of formation is. In a world in which the vast majority of contracts are signed without the advice of counsel, most people have to draw inferences based on their background knowledge and beliefs. It turns out that the colloquial understanding of contract formation is about the formalization of an agreement rather than actual assent. In the second part of the Article, we tease out the intuitive relationship between formation and obligation. The law of contracts is very clear that parties’ obligations to one another turn entirely on whether or not they have mutually manifested assent to be bound. And, in fact, we find that behavioral results suggest that legal (or legalistic) formation does enhance commitment to a deal irrespective of its power to impose sanctions; it seems that the law has freestanding normative force. However, we also find that the subjective sense of obligation is not as black or white as the law would predict. Parties are influenced by the natural, informal obligations to one another that build over the course of a transaction, increasing their commitment to the partnership in stages rather than all at once at the moment of formation.

Judging the Book by Its Cover? how Consumers Decode Conspicuous Consumption Cues in Buyer–Seller Relationships

Little empirical consumer research has focused on the decoding of conspicuous symbolism, that is, the inferences consumers make about others’ conspicuous consumption. Grounded in theory on social perception and role congruity, four experiments show that consumer inferences about and behavioral intentions toward conspicuous sellers are moderated by communal and exchange relationship norms. Specifically, conspicuous consumption by a seller decreases warmth inferences and, in turn, behavioral intentions toward the seller under the communal norm; conversely, it increases competence inferences and, in turn, behavioral intentions under the exchange norm. A seller's mere wealth triggers similar inferences, suggesting that conspicuous consumption is a surrogate for actual wealth. Priming consumers with persuasion knowledge inhibits the inferential benefits resulting from conspicuousness under the exchange norm. These findings reveal the theoretically meaningful role of the consumption context by showing that consumers’ warmth and competence inferences operate differentially in commercial relationships as a result of salient communal versus exchange norms, with important consequences for consumers’ behavioral intentions.

Void exclusion of antibodies by grafted-ligand porous particle anion exchangers

We describe a new variant of anion exchange chromatography in columns packed with porous particles that embody charged low-density polymer zones supported by a higher density polymer skeleton. IgG defies the norms of anion exchange and is excluded to the void volume at pH 3–10 and 0–4M NaCl. Void exclusion also occurs with Fab, F(ab’)2, and IgM. Host cell protein contaminants mostly follow the usual norms of anion exchange and bind more strongly with increasing pH and decreasing conductivity. Sample buffer composition has no impact on partitioning so long as applied sample volume does not exceed the interparticle void volume of the column. Void-excluded antibody elutes in equilibration buffer. This seemingly conflicted collection of behaviors is reconciled by a variable size exclusion function mediated through the low-density polymer zones, the charge properties of the antibody species, and the pH and conductivity of the equilibration buffer. Current-generation porous particle anion exchangers that employ grafting techniques to achieve high charge density mediate void exclusion to varying degrees, with the best-suited achieving complete exclusion, and others as little as 65%. Perfusive and non-grafted particle-based exchangers mediate as little as 50% exclusion. Monoliths mediate no exclusion, due to their lack of an interparticle void volume. On qualified exchangers, the technique supports greater than 99% reduction of host proteins, DNA, and endotoxin. Virus is reduced more than 99.9%, and aggregates are reduced to less than 0.05%. The method supports better process control than other anion exchange formats because pH excursions in conjunction with changes in salt concentration do not occur until after the antibody has eluted from the column.

Proactive and reactive helping: Contrasting the positive consequences of different forms of helping

SummaryResearch on helping has identified positive consequences of helping for the helper, beneficiary, group, and organization. Recent research, however, raises concerns about contingencies that influence the outcomes of helping and suggests the need for a more nuanced perspective on the positive outcomes of helping. In this paper, we develop a novel theoretical perspective to address these contingencies by differentiating between proactive helping and reactive helping. Drawing from the two main theoretical frameworks, which have been used as the basis for studying helping—social exchange theory and functional motives theory—we discuss differences in the positive consequences of reactive and proactive helping for helpers, dyads, groups, and organizations. We submit that reactive helping facilitates heedful relationships, such that it creates and perpetuates social exchange norms that benefit others in the group. Conversely, we posit that proactive helping is often based on fulfilling personal needs, such that it benefits the self in terms of reputational benefits, well‐being, favorable self‐evaluations, need satisfaction, and self‐development. We discuss theoretical implications of this framework for future research on the positive consequences of helping. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Relational norms and responses to rejection: Communal and exchange norms

Relational norms and responses to rejection: Communal and exchange norms

Collectivist orientation and the psychological contract: Mediating effects of creditor exchange ideology

As organizations globalize, culturally based variation in the ways employees conceptualize their relationships with their employers increases in importance. In the competition for talent, organizations must understand employee preferences and expectations regarding their treatment by the firm. Recently, culture's influence on the psychological contract (individual perceptions of employer obligations) has been noted with regard to the extent that employees perceive their psychological contracts as relational or transactional. We provide results from a survey conducted in a multinational corporation (MNC) indicating that the cultural value of collectivist orientation likely has its effect on the psychological contract through beliefs about the nature of social exchange. Data were consistent with creditor exchange ideology (appropriateness of giving more than has been received) mediating the relationship between collectivist orientation and perceptions of a relational psychological contract. By examining this relationship empirically, we go beyond the demonstration of cultural effects to describe an intermediate mechanism through which culture operates. Exchange norms are likely to play a mediating role in a variety of cross-cultural relationships, and may be used by managers as a lever to improve relationships with employees, as opposed to engaging in attempts to change individual cultural orientation.

Universities and a Human Development Ethics: a capabilities approach to curriculum

This article takes up the challenge of curriculum change in relation to the contested purposes of universities. It argues for an expansive, public good understanding, rather than the thin market exchange norms which currently drive higher education policies. The paper suggests that a human capital approach to curriculum is then insufficient to capture the full range and potential of a university curriculum. Instead, an approach to curriculum based on human development and capabilities formation is advanced as offering a richer perspective on what it means to be human and hence on the kinds of graduates universities should educate. Some implications for teaching, learning and assessment are outlined and a framework to design and operationalise a human development approach to curriculum is proposed.

Small firms in multipartner R&D alliances: Gaining benefits by acquiescing

This study highlights how smaller firms gain advantages through exchange strategies in alliances. Based on a sample of 141 firms involved in multipartner alliances governed by cooperative exchange norms, our findings support the hypothesis that smaller firms are more likely than larger firms to comply with cooperative exchange norms. This finding is especially valid for firms in manufacturing industries and can positively influence new product development. This study is a starting point for additional research investigating how, when, and why firms can benefit from engaging in multipartner alliances, even if they are a relatively small player.