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Cooperation across Organizational Boundaries: Experimental Evidence from a Major Sustainability Science Project

Author

Listed:
  • Timothy M. Waring

    (Ecology and Environmental Sciences, School of Economics, Sustainable Solutions Initiative, University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469, USA)

  • Sandra Hughes Goff

    (Ecology and Environmental Sciences, School of Economics, Sustainable Solutions Initiative, University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469, USA
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Julia McGuire

    (Ecology and Environmental Sciences, School of Economics, Sustainable Solutions Initiative, University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469, USA
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Z. Dylan Moore

    (Ecology and Environmental Sciences, School of Economics, Sustainable Solutions Initiative, University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469, USA
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Abigail Sullivan

    (School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

Abstract

Engaged research emphasizes researcher–stakeholder collaborations as means of improving the relevance of research outcomes and the chances for science-based decision-making. Sustainability science, as a form of engaged research, depends on the collaborative abilities and cooperative tendencies of researchers. We use an economic experiment to measure cooperation between university faculty, local citizens, and faculty engaged in a large sustainability science project to test a set of hypotheses: (1) faculty on the sustainability project will cooperate more with local residents than non-affiliated faculty, (2) sustainability faculty will have the highest level of internal cooperation of any group, and (3) that cooperation may vary due to academic training and culture in different departments amongst sustainability faculty. Our results demonstrate that affiliation with the sustainability project is not associated with differences in cooperation with local citizens or with in-group peers, but that disciplinary differences amongst sustainability faculty do correlate with cooperative tendencies within our sample. We also find that non-affiliated faculty cooperated less with each other than with faculty affiliated with the sustainability project. We conclude that economic experiments can be useful in discovering patterns of prosociality within institutional settings, and list challenges for further applications.

Suggested Citation

  • Timothy M. Waring & Sandra Hughes Goff & Julia McGuire & Z. Dylan Moore & Abigail Sullivan, 2014. "Cooperation across Organizational Boundaries: Experimental Evidence from a Major Sustainability Science Project," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(3), pages 1-20, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:6:y:2014:i:3:p:1171-1190:d:33643
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Tremblay, Ethan & Hupper, Afton & Waring, Timothy, 2019. "Cooperatives exhibit greater cooperation than comparable businesses: experimental evidence," SocArXiv 6x9p3, Center for Open Science.
    2. Yinqi Ma & Qi Xiu & Lingzhi Shao & Hao Yao, 2022. "Promoting the Sustainable Improvement of Educational Empirical Research Quality: What Kinds of Collaborative Production Relationships Make Sense?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-23, March.
    3. Guangdong Wu & Jian Zuo & Xianbo Zhao, 2017. "Incentive Model Based on Cooperative Relationship in Sustainable Construction Projects," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(7), pages 1-20, July.

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