Social norms constrain people's behaviors in transactions, but such norms are rarely investigated. Script theory provides a coherent, holistic structure for understanding socially mediated behaviors. This study proposes terms of a script for the pricing behavior of transactors when friendship is considered. The script generates testable hypotheses, which are studied in three lab-based experiments. Vignette studies considered the effect of friendship on two-party transactions and revealed consistent behaviors. Without discussion, subjects exhibit consistent agreement for what constitutes appropriate pricing for friends and for strangers in different contexts: when pricing a variety of commodities for a transaction, when acting as agents for a friend or a stranger, and when observing others engaged in such transactions.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Alexander, J. 1987. The micro-macro link. Berkeley: University of California Press.
2.
Austin, W.1980. Friendship and fairness: Effects of type of relationship and task performance on choice of distribution rules. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin6:402-408.
3.
Baker, W. E. 1984. Floor trading and crowd dynamics. In The social dynamics of financial markets, edited by P. A. Adler and P. Adler, 107-128. Greenwich, CT: JAI.
4.
Becker, G. S. 1976. The economic approach to human behavior. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
5.
Bell, R. R. 1981. Worlds of friendship. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
6.
Belmonte, T. 1989. The broken fountain. 2nd ed.New York: Columbia University Press.
7.
Benedict, R. 1934. Patterns of culture. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
8.
Blau, P. M. 1964. Exchange and power in social life. New York: John Wiley.
9.
Blieszner, R. , and R. G. Adams. 1992. Adult friendship. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
10.
Boulding, K. E. 1973. The economy of love and fear. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
11.
Canary, D. J. , W. R. Cupach, and S. J. Messman. 1995. Relationship conflict: Conflict in parent-child, friendship, and work relationships. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
12.
Carroll, J. S. , M. H. Bazerman, and R. Maury. 1988. Negotiator cognitions: A descriptive approach to negotiators' understanding of their opponents. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes41:352-370.
13.
Carroll, R. 1987. Cultural misunderstandings: The French-American experience. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
14.
Castanzias, R. P. , and C. E. Helfat. 1991. Managerial resources and rents. Journal of Management17:155-171.
15.
Clark, M. S. , and J. Mills. 1979. Interpersonal attraction in exchange and communal relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology37:12-24.
16.
Coleman, J. S. 1990. The foundations of social theory. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
17.
Cottam, R. W. 1977. Foreign policy motivation. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.
18.
Cummings, L. L. , and R. Anton. 1990. The logical and appreciative dimensions of accountability. In The functioning of executive appreciation, edited by S. Srivastra and D. L. Cooperider, 247-437. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
19.
Fischer, C. S.1982. What do we mean by “friend”? A deductive study. Social Network3:287-306.
20.
Fiske, Susan T. , and S. E. Taylor. 1984. Social cognition. New York: Random House.
21.
Fiske, Susan T. , and S. E. Taylor. 1991. Social cognition. New York: Random House.
22.
Foa, U. , and E. Foa. 1975. Resource theory of social exchange. Morristown, NJ: General Learning Press.
23.
Fry, W. R. , I. J. Firestone, and D. L. Williams. 1983. Negotiation process and outcome of stranger dyads and dating couples: Do lovers lose?Basic and Applied Social Psychology4 (1): 1-16.
24.
Granovetter, M. 1974. Getting a job: A study of contacts and careers. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
25.
Greenhalgh, L., and D. Chapman. 1994. Characteristics of relationships between disputants: Impact and empirical assessment. Unpublished manuscript.
26.
Halpern, J. J. 1992. The effect of friendship on bargaining: Experimental studies of personal business transactions. In Best paper proceedings, edited by J. L. Wall and L. R. Jauch, Academy of Management, Las Vegas, NV, 64-68.
27.
Halpern, J. J.1994. The effect of friendship on personal business transactions. Journal of Conflict Resolution38 (4): 647-664.
28.
Halpern, J. J.1996. The effect of friendship on decisions: Field studies of real estate transactions. Human Relations49 (12): 1519-1547.
29.
Halpern, J. J.1997. The transaction zone index: Explaining the role of friendship in personal business transactions. Group Decision and Negotiation6 (6): 557-572.
30.
Halpern, J. J. Forthcoming. Bonded rationality: The rationality of everyday decision making. In Debating rationality: Nonrational aspects of organizational decision making, edited by J. J. Halpern and R. N. Stern, 219-238. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University-ILR Press.
31.
Halpern, J. J. , and J. McLean Parks. 1996. Vive la différence: Gender differences in process and outcomes in a low-conflict negotiation. International Journal of Conflict Management7 (1): 45-70.
32.
Hirschman, A. O. 1986. Rival views of market society. New York: Viking.
33.
Homans, G. C. 1950. The human group. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World.
34.
Husted, B. 1990. Interorganizational trust. Unpublished dissertation, University of California, Berkeley.
35.
Kelley, H. H. 1979. Personal relationships: Their structures and processes. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
36.
Krackhardt, D. , and R. N. Stern. 1988. Informal networks and organizational crises: An experimental simulation. Social Psychology Quarterly51 (2): 123-140.
37.
Krech, D. , and R. S. Crutchfield. 1948. Theory and problems of social psychology. New York: McGraw-Hill.
38.
Lazarsfeld, P. F. , and R. K. Merton. 1954. Friendship as a social process: A substantive and methodological analysis. In Freedom and control in modern society, edited by M. Berger, T. Abel, and C. H. Page, 18-66. Princeton, NJ: D. Van Nostrand.
39.
Loewenstein, G., L. Thompson , and M. Bazerman. 1989. Social utility and decision making in interpersonal contexts. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology57 (3): 426-441.
40.
Macauley, S.1963. Non-contractual relations in business: A preliminary study. American Sociological Review28 (1): 55-67.
41.
MacNeil, I. R.1974. The many futures of contracts. Southern California Law Review47:691-816.
42.
Mauss, M. 1969. The gift: Forms and functions of exchange in archaic societies. London: Cohen and West.
43.
McLean Parks, J. , T. L. Boles, D. Conlon, E. DeSouza, W. Gatewood, K. Gibson, J. J. Halpern, D. Locke, P. Straub, G. Wilson, and J. K. Murnighan. 1996. The fair distribution of adventitious outcomes. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes67 (2): 181-200.
44.
McLean Parks, J. , and E. Conlon. 1995. Compensation contracts: Do agency theory assumptions predict negotiated agreements?Academy of Management Journal38 (3): 821-838.
45.
Mischel, W. 1977. The interaction of person and situation. In Personality at the crossroads: Current issues in interactional psychology, edited by D. Magnusson and N. S. Endler, 332-352. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
46.
Morgan, W. R. , and J. Sawyer. 1967. Bargaining, expectations, and the preference for equality over equity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology6:139-149.
47.
Nader, L. , and H. F. Todd Jr. 1978. The disputing process—Law in ten societies. New York: Columbia University Press.
48.
Nakane, C. 1970. Japanese society. Berkeley: University of California Press.
49.
Robinson, S. , and D. Rousseau. 1994. Violating the psychological contract: Not the exception but the norm. Journal of Organizational Behavior15:245-259.
50.
Roth, A. E. , and J. K. Murnighan. 1982. The role of information in bargaining: An experimental study. Econometrica50:1123-1142.
51.
Roth, A. E. , and J. K. Murnighan. 1982. The role of information in bargaining: An experimental study. Econometrica50:1123-1142.
52.
Rousseau, D. M. , and J. McLean Parks. 1992. The contracts of individuals and organizations. In Research in organizational behavior, edited by L. L. Cummings and B. M. Staw, 1-43. Greenwich, CT: JAI.
53.
Rubin, Z. 1973. Liking and loving. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
54.
Sahlins, M. 1972. Stone age economics. Chicago: Aldine Atherton.
55.
Sawyer, J.1966. The altruism scale: A measure of cooperative, individualistic, and competitive interpersonal orientation. American Journal of Sociology71:407-416.
56.
Schank, R. C. , and R. P. Abelson. 1977. Scripts, plans, and understanding. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
57.
Schiller, R. J. , M. Boycko, and V. Korobov. 1990. Popular attitudes towards free markets: The Soviet Union and the United States compared. National Bureau of Economic Research-USSR Institute of World Economy and International Relations Joint Conference, Cambridge, MA.
58.
Schoeninger, D. W. , and W. D. Wood. 1969. Comparison of married and ad hoc mixed-sex dyads negotiating the division of a reward. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology5:483-499.
59.
Schuster, C. , and M. Copeland. 1996. Global business: Planning for sales and negotiations. Fort Worth, TX: Dryden.
60.
Seabright, M. , D. Levinthal, and M. Fichman. 1992. Role of individual attachments in the dissolution of interorganizational relationships. Academy of Management Journal35:122-160.
61.
Shapiro, E. G.1975. Effect of expectations of future interactions on reward allocations in dyads: Equity or equality?Journal of Personality and Social Psychology31:873-880.
62.
Tannen, D. 1990. You just don't understand. New York: Ballantine.
63.
Thaler, R. H.1985. Mental accounting and consumer choice. Marketing Science4 (3): 199-214.
64.
Thaler, R. H. 1991. Quasi rational economics. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
65.
Tversky, A. , and D. Kahneman. 1974. Judgment under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases. Science185:1124-1131.
66.
Velleman, P. F. 1996. Data desk. Ithaca, NY: Data Description.
67.
Williamson, O. E. 1985. The economic institution of capitalism. New York: Free Press.
68.
Wiseman, J. P.1986. Friendship: Bonds and binds in a voluntary relationship. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships3:191-211.
69.
Zand, D. E.1972. Trust and managerial problem-solving. Administrative Science Quarterly17:229-239.
