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A Cross-Cultural Multi-agent Model of Opportunism in Trade

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Transactions on Computational Collective Intelligence II

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((TCCI,volume 6450))

Abstract

According to transaction cost economics, contracts are always incomplete and offer opportunities to defect. Some level of trust is a sine qua non for trade. If the seller is better informed about product quality than the buyer, the buyer has to rely on information the seller provides or has to check the information by testing the product or tracing the supply chain processes, thus incurring extra transaction cost. An opportunistic seller who assumes the buyer to trust, may deliver a lower quality product than agreed upon. In human decisions to deceive and to show trust or distrust, issues like mutual expectations, shame, self-esteem, personality, and reputation are involved. These factors depend in part on traders’ cultural background. This paper proposes an agent model of deceit and trust and describes a multi-agent simulation where trading agents are differentiated according to Hofstede’s dimensions of national culture. Simulations of USA and Dutch trading situations are compared.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Wageningen University, Postbus 9109, 6700 HB, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    Gert Jan Hofstede

  2. Delft University of Technology, Mekelweg 4, 2628 CD, Delft, The Netherlands

    Gert Jan Hofstede & Catholijn M. Jonker

  3. LEI Wageningen UR, Postbus 29703, 2502 LS, Den Haag, The Netherlands

    Tim Verwaart

Authors
  1. Gert Jan Hofstede
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  2. Catholijn M. Jonker
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  3. Tim Verwaart
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Informatics, Wroclaw University of Technology, Str. Wyb. Wyspianskiego 27, 50-370, Wroclaw, Poland

    Ngoc Thanh Nguyen

  2. Centre for Complex Software Systems and Services, Swinburne University of Technology, P.O. Box 218, 3122, Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia

    Ryszard Kowalczyk

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Hofstede, G.J., Jonker, C.M., Verwaart, T. (2010). A Cross-Cultural Multi-agent Model of Opportunism in Trade. In: Nguyen, N.T., Kowalczyk, R. (eds) Transactions on Computational Collective Intelligence II. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 6450. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-17155-0_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-17155-0_2

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-17154-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-17155-0

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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