Proceedings of the International Association for Business and Society

Volume 4, 1993

Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Meeting

Collusion and Other Collaborations
An Assessment of Variety and Consequences in Collaboration Among Competitors

Collusion is the classic form of collaboration between competitors in an industry. While attractive to industry participants as a means of limiting competitive uncertainty this form of collaboration has generally negative social welfare consequences. More recently, other forms of intra-industry collaboration have received attention as means to manage interdependencies, reduce uncertainty, facilitate transactions when markets fail, and enhance the exchange of organizational know-how. However, collaboration entails risks both for participants and society as a whole. This paper explores forms of intraindustry collaboration and examines the participant and social risks associated with each form of collaborative activity.