IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/ororsc/v36y2025i2p940-966.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Difference in Deference: When Competitors Do Not Give in Despite Having Lost

Author

Listed:
  • Rodolphe Durand

    (Sustainability and Organizations Institute, HEC Paris, 78 351 Jouy en Josas, France)

  • Henning Piezunka

    (The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104)

  • Philipp Reineke

    (Department of Management Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305)

Abstract

When a contest is decided, the inferior competitor is supposed to defer to the superior opponent. Yet, sometimes the losing actors refuse to give in. We theorize why and when losing actors do not defer—even when they are supposed to. We hypothesize that when the losing actors categorize their relationship with an opponent as rivalrous beyond the current contest and may obtain some contest-specific gains independent of the focal encounter, they will not defer as much as expected. Unique data from Formula One racing prove strong support. Our findings contribute to research on deference as well as on competition and rivalry. Our study also has broader implications as it helps explain when people do not respect social norms while competing—be it for rewards, for promotions, or in elections.

Suggested Citation

  • Rodolphe Durand & Henning Piezunka & Philipp Reineke, 2025. "Difference in Deference: When Competitors Do Not Give in Despite Having Lost," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 36(2), pages 940-966, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:inm:ororsc:v:36:y:2025:i:2:p:940-966
    DOI: 10.1287/orsc.2023.17474
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2023.17474
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/orsc.2023.17474?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:inm:ororsc:v:36:y:2025:i:2:p:940-966. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.