The Relational View of Economics: A New Research Agenda for the Study of Relational Transactions

Contents
Editors and Contributors
Part I Introduction
Preface
Manifesto for a Relational Economics
1 Societal Change and Economic Theory
2 The Case for Relational Economics
3 Defining the Research Agenda
Part II Economic Theory and Relational Method
Relational Economics: Theoretical Framework and Managerial Implications—A Short Introduction
1 The Relational Economy as a Self-unfolding Process
1.1 Phenomena and Theories
1.2 Processes and Experience
2 The Relatedness of Relational Transactions
2.1 Exchanges and Transactions
2.2 Exchange Transactions and Relational Transactions
3 The Governance of Self-unfolding Processes
3.1 Governance and Process
3.2 Interaction and Functional Equivalence
3.3 Case Study: Pattern and Structure Formation
4 The Cooperation Corridor and Relational Rent
4.1 Cooperation-Economic Opportunities and Organization
4.2 Triggers and Other Effects
4.3 Relational Costs and Shared Value Creation
5 Closing Remarks
References
Why We Could Need a Relational Economics and Why Standard Economics and Its (Orthodox) Derivations Do not Help
1 Introduction
2 Part I: Building Blocks
2.1 The Complexity Turn in Social Sciences
2.2 Five Research Streams in Economics, Sociology, and Organization Science
3 Part II: What RE Should Not Be
3.1 The Inadequateness of Standard Economics
3.2 Transaction Cost Economics
3.3 A View at Some Theoretical Fragments
4 Conclusions
References
Modeling Relational Transactions
1 Introduction
2 Background and Essential Concepts
2.1 Relational Transactions
2.2 Resources of Cooperation and Cooperation Corridors
2.3 Relations as the Central Problem
3 Operationalizing Relational Transactions: Modeling
3.1 The Unit of Analysis: Classifying Transaction Attributes
3.2 The Elements of the Model
3.3 Modeling Relational Transactions
3.4 Resources of Cooperation
3.5 Cooperation Corridors
3.6 Transactions and Their Emergence
3.7 Dynamics Through Strategies
4 Discussion
4.1 Limitations and Simplifications
4.2 Output Analysis
References
Part III Shared Value Creation and Social Responsibility
Bringing Inspiration from the Past: A Renaissance Manual for Merchants
1 Introduction
2 Benedetto Cotrugli and His Book
3 The “Libro del’arte dela mercatura”
4 Some Reflections for the Relational Economics Project
References
Shared Value Statement: New Perspectives on Measuring Business Value Creation
1 Introduction
2 Business Value Creation and the Value-Added Statement
3 Income-Based Theory of Shared Value
4 Notes on an Income-Based Theory of the Firm
5 The Shared Value Statement
6 Concluding Remarks
References
Managing Global Production Networks: Towards Social Responsibility via Inter-organizational Reliability?
1 Introduction
2 Global Production Networks, Their Governance and Management
2.1 Governance of Global Production Networks
2.2 Managing (Strategically Led) Global Production Networks
3 Relating Inter-organizational Reliability and Network Responsibility
4 Managing and Governing Global Production Networks for Reliability and Responsibility
4.1 Network Governance for Reliability and Responsibility
4.2 Network Management for Reliability and Responsibility
5 Discussion and Conclusion
References
Incentives, Autonomous Motivation, and Bank Managers’ Socially Responsible Behavior
1 Introduction
2 Background
2.1 Corporate Social Responsibility: From a Firm Perspective to Micro-corporate Social Responsibility
2.2 Theoretical Framework
2.3 A Review of Empirical and Experimental Studies on Socially Responsible Behavior
3 Hypotheses
4 Study 1
4.1 Method
4.2 Measure of Engagement in SRB and Motivation
4.3 Descriptive Results
4.4 Multivariate Results
4.5 Discussion
5 Study 2
5.1 Subjects
5.2 Design of Scenarios
5.3 Measure of Engagement in SRB and Motivation
5.4 Descriptive Results
5.5 Multivariate Results
5.6 Discussion
6 Concluding Discussion
Appendices
Appendix 1: Vignette Cues Used for the Independent Variables*
Appendix 2: Descriptions of Alternative SRB Projects*
Appendix 3: Items Used to Measure Engagement in SRB
Appendix 4: Items Used to Measure Motivation for SRB in Study 1**
Appendix 5: Items Used to Measure Motivation for SRB* in Study 2
References
Part IV Global Value Networks and Relational Contracts
Transcultural Cooperation in Global Networks. A Contribution to the Research Program of Relational Economics
1 A Relational View on Cooperative Value Creation
2 Culture as a Resource for Cooperation
3 Transcultural Learning
4 From Cultural Capital to Transcultural Commons
5 Transculturality and Diversity: A Relation—What Else?
References
Leadership in Multi-stakeholder Partnerships (MSPs) that Address the SDGs: Relational Leadership and Ubuntu in Dialogue
1 A Introduction: The Importance of Rationality in Addressing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
2 Toward a Relational Leadership Approach to Multi-sector Partnerships (MSPs) Addressing the SDGs
3 A Relational Ontology of Personhood (Ubuntu) and the Macro-level of Multi-sector Partnerships
4 Relational Leadership and Ubuntu: A Dialogue
4.1 Questions to Ubuntu from the Perspective of Relational Leadership
4.2 Questions to Relational Leadership from the Perspective of Relational Ontology
4.3 Can a Critical Reading of Ubuntu Emerge?
5 Conclusion: Toward Co-responsibility
References
Relational Contracting in Practice: A Route to Relational Economics?
1 Introduction
2 Why Contracts Matter
3 Relational Contracts: How They Differ
4 Relational Contracts: The Benefits
5 Relational Contracts: Structural Implications
6 Relational Contracts: Barriers to Adoption and Use
7 Concluding Remarks
Part V Epistemology and Relational Economics
Relational Processes in Whitehead’s Metaphysics and Commons’ Economics. The Relevance of Cosmology for Economic Theory
1 Economics of Transaction. The Microanalytical Theory Decision
2 Natural Ontology and Social Ontology of Actual Transactions. Living in Exactly One, but Complex Universe
3 Reductive” or “Reductionist? An Important Methodological Difference for Microanalytical Approaches
4 Cosmological Process Metaphysics. Alfred North Whitehead
4.1 “Reductive”. A Cosmos of Relational Events
4.2 Not “Reductionist”. Not Everything in the Physical Cosmos is Physical
5 Transaction Economics. John R. Commons
5.1 “Reductive”. An Economy of Relational Transactions
5.2 Not “Reductionist”. Not Everything in the Economy is Economic
6 Outro
References
Relational Money—Working to Define the Conditions of Non-payment
1 Introduction
2 John R. Commons’ Transaction Theory of Money
2.1 Futurity
2.2 Profit and Interest
2.3 The Institution of Money and the Monetary Transaction
2.4 The Valuation Process
3 The Nexus of Money, Going Concerns, and Banks
3.1 Forecast and Repetition System(s) Instead of Circulation
3.2 The Function of Interest as Price
4 Implications for Relational Economics
4.1 Discussion of the Implied Concept of Capital
4.2 Polycontexturality and Money
4.3 Implications for the Logic of Cooperation
5 Summary and Outlook
Literature
Reasons Theoretical Underpinnings, and Core Features of a Novel Paradigm of Acting in Economics
1 Introduction
2 The Three Reasons for Seeking a Novel Paradigm of Acting
3 Some Remarks on the Conceptual Underpinnings
4 Six Crucial Features of the Novel Paradigm of Acting
Contracts as Cooperation: About an Implicit Ethics of Transactions
1 Transactions as Bilateral Mutualities
1.1 Networks and Markets
1.2 Implicit Ethical and Gift-Economic Implications of the Transaction
2 Gift-Economic Aspects of the Digital Economy
2.1 The Gift-Economic Core Process of the Digital Economy
2.2 Quaternary Allocation: On the Interlocking of Markets and Non-Markets
3 Coda
References