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Individual rationality sometimes leads to collectively irrational outcomes, a fundamental problem in the social and life sciences that has attracted sustained attention from experimentalists in sociology, psychology, biology, and economics. But what is it about individual rationality that sometimes gets us into trouble? Is the problem the egoistic pursuit of individual self-interest? Or does the problem with individual rationality lie elsewhere? To find an answer, this chapter closely examines the theoretical and experimental literature on social dilemmas, to see how researchers identify the source of the problem. The review suggests that the prevailing theory wrongly points to egoism as the problem. Failing to do what is best for everyone can also happen among rational altruists, and sometimes egoism is needed to prevent it. The chapter concludes by pointing to what we believe is the fundamental problem – a tension not between individual self-interest and collective welfare, but between individual autonomy and collective interdependence.

The purpose of this paper is to draw on social dilemma theory and reference group theory to explain the attitude‐behavior inconsistency in environmental consumerism. This research seeks to better understand why, despite concern towards the environment (attitude), consumers fail to purchase environmentally friendly or green products (behavior).

A survey instrument was developed that used scales to measure eight independent and one dependent variable. In addition, socio‐demographic data were also collected about the study participants. To discriminate between green and non‐green buyers, classification with discriminant analysis was used.

The framework presented contributes to the environmental consumerism literature by framing the attitude‐behavior gap as a social dilemma and draws on reference group theory to identify individual factors to help understand the gap and suggest ways in which to bridge it. Results from the study reveal that several characteristics of the individual – trust, in‐group identity, expectation of others' cooperation and perceived efficacy – were significant in differentiating between “non‐green” and “green” buyers.

The results of the study offer several managerial implications. First, marketers should reinforce the role trust plays in solidifying collective action. Second, because of the strong influence of reference groups in green buying, marketing communications managers should use spokespeople who are relatable. Third, the study showed that expectation of others' cooperation significantly identifies green buyers. Fourth, to address the perception of personal efficacy, it is important that green marketers emphasize the difference that individual action makes for the collective good.

The research draws on both social dilemma and reference group theories to investigate the determinants of and the mechanisms to explain the rationale behind the attitude‐behavior gap as it pertains to a specific environmental issue – energy conservation.

Social dilemmas take many forms but all share the property that individual benefits, at least in the short run, conflict with group benefits. This chapter examines how information about the characteristics of group members and the parameters of the dilemma affect decision-making. Particular attention is paid to transformative crises, sudden changes in the dilemma setting that for a short period of time lead to incomplete information. It is posited that these crises cause relatively dramatic shifts in the importance of information.

Purpose – The purpose of this chapter is to explore the implications of viewing group decision-making through the lens of a social dilemma.

Design/methodology/approach – The chapter reviews the literature on why group decision-making often fails to live up to its potential, and then applies the social dilemma perspective to develop new insights about how the limitations of group decision-making might be overcome.

Findings – Applying the social dilemma perspective to group decision-making provides several prescriptions for group decision-making improvement by highlighting a critical distinction between participation and engagement.

Limitations – An important limitation of applying the social dilemma perspective to group decision-making is that improving group engagement by redefining member duty carries the risk of energizing dissent that only questions the group's answer and not the group's question.

Practical implications – The chapter refocuses the dialogue about group decision-making effectiveness away from “just” participation to include group member engagement.

Social implications – A key social implication of this chapter is that all social behavior represents a social dilemma, and that viewing everyday social activities (such as group decision-making) as social dilemmas can help identify new ways to understand cooperation failures and thereby improve future cooperation in groups.

Originality/value – The chapter extends and re-energizes research on group decision-making by providing a fresh lens – the social dilemma perspective – through which to understand and improve group decision-making failures.

We review previous research on intergenerational conflict, focusing on the practical implications of this research for organizational leaders. We explain how the interaction between the interpersonal and intertemporal dimensions of intergenerational decisions creates the unique psychology of intergenerational decision-making behavior. In addition, we review the boundary conditions that have characterized much of the previous research in this area, and we examine the potential effects of loosening these constraints. Our proposals for future research include examination of the effect of intra-generational decision making on intergenerational beneficence, consideration of the role of third parties and linkage issues, investigation of the effects of intergenerational communications and negotiation when generations can interact, examination of the role of social power in influencing intergenerational interactions, investigation of the interaction between temporal construal and immortality striving, and exploration of the ways in which present decision makers detect and define the intergenerational dilemmas in their social environments.

This paper aims to provide a new conceptual approach to corporate social responsibility (CSR), termed enlightened shared value (ESV), by applying the social dilemma paradigm and long-term value maximization.

In this conceptual paper, the author analyzes CSR as an organizational social dilemma, where the conflicts among stakeholders and between short- and long-term outcomes are inevitable. To minimize these conflicts, firms need to aim at long-term value maximization to provide the maximum outcome to the firm and satisfy all relevant stakeholders. Adopting these perspectives, the author introduces ESV and compares ESV with major CSR approaches.

ESV provides a clear metric and the method for CSR, which is lacking in existing CSR approaches. Consequently, ESV is superior to and has better applicability than existing CSR approaches. The author suggests that shifting focus to long-term outcomes can reduce the conflicts in CSR and make CSR a win-win game.

As an alternative to existing CSR approaches, ESV can provide the best outcome to the firm and all relevant stakeholders. ESV adds the understanding of CSR’s theoretical discussions and provides a practical guideline to practitioners.

Knowledge sharing culture and performance climate are organizational interventions used by organizations to influence and shape employees’ attitudes and behavior toward knowledge sharing. While each strategy directly influences employees to respond accordingly, the interplay between the incongruent objectives of these two strategies could lead to social dilemmas in knowledge sharing. This study aims to understand social dilemmas in knowledge sharing due to the interaction between knowledge sharing culture and performance climate.

An experimental study using the vignette technique was performed on 240 working adults. ANOVA was conducted to examine the interplay effect between knowledge sharing culture and performance climate on knowledge sharing intention.

Results showed that performance climate moderates the effect of knowledge sharing culture on employees’ knowledge sharing intention. The findings highlight the importance of having goal congruence between knowledge sharing culture and performance climate to minimize the social dilemmas in knowledge sharing.

This study develops a moderation model based on the theory of social dilemma to investigate the interaction between knowledge sharing culture and performance climate and enhance the theoretical validity and exactness of the knowledge sharing literature. The findings from this study provide theoretical insights and practical implications for social dilemmas in knowledge sharing, as well as the foundation for continuous research into knowledge sharing and people management practices that may have a strong influence on employees’ knowledge sharing behavior, attitude and performance.

A long line of research has addressed whether there are sex differences in cooperation and other forms of prosocial behavior. Studies of social dilemmas (situations that pose a conflict between individual and collective interests) have yielded particularly contradictory conclusions about whether males or females are more cooperative. We present an evolutionary framework that synthesizes previous results and generates new insights into the sex and cooperation question. The framework addresses two general bases of sex differences in cooperation. First, we show how variation in the motivational structure of social dilemmas generates sex differences in cooperation. We then address two aspects of social structure, that, according to evolutionary reasoning, generate sex differences in cooperation: the sex composition of the group, and the interpersonal versus intergroup nature of the dilemma. After presenting new hypotheses and reviewing existing research relevant to each hypothesis, we conclude by making suggestions for future research.

This research aims to conduct a comprehensive conceptual model and empirical validation of the integration of negative (ego-centric) and positive (altruistic and ego-centric) drivers of green buying based on social dilemma theory and psychological egoism theory.

Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire survey and analyzed with hierarchical regression analysis.

The results indicate that moral obligations, green self-identity, environmental concern and social pressure are positively related to green purchase intention, while perceived cost of green purchasing and price sensitivity are negatively. Meanwhile, social pressure positively moderates the relationship between price sensitivity and consumers' green purchasing intention, but negatively moderates the relationship between perceived cost of green purchasing and consumers' green purchasing intention.

First, this study is a comprehensive model of the concept and empirical validation of the integration of negative (ego-centric) and positive (altruistic and ego-centric) drivers of green buying. Specially, this study emphasizes the neglected importance of positive ego-centric factors of green consumer behavior. Second, this study explicitly incorporated the moderating effect of social pressure in the context of China. Since green buying is a social dilemma, the changes in this social dilemma after being affected by social pressure under the Chinese collectivist culture are also worth noting. Third, little is known about what motivates green consumption in emerging economies, and this has been hampered by a lack of cultural knowledge, conceptual richness and behavioral research that critically analyses consumer behavior.

Enterprise social media platforms provide new ways of sharing knowledge and communicating within organizations to benefit from the social capital and valuable knowledge that employees have. Drawing on social dilemma and self-determination theory, the purpose of this paper is to understand what factors drive employees’ participation and what factors hamper their participation in enterprise social media.

Based on a literature review, a unified research model is derived integrating demographic, individual, organizational and technological factors that influence the motivation of employees to share knowledge. The model is tested using statistical methods on a sample of 114 respondents in Denmark. Qualitative data are used to elaborate and explain quantitative findings.

The findings pinpoint towards the general drivers and barriers to knowledge sharing within organizations. The significant drivers to knowledge sharing are: enjoy helping others, monetary rewards, management support, management encourages and motivates knowledge sharing behavior and knowledge sharing is recognized. The significant identified barriers are: change of behavior, lack of trust and lack of time.

The proposed knowledge sharing framework helps to understand what factors impact engagement on social media. Furthermore, the article suggests different types of interventions to overcome the social dilemma of knowledge sharing.

The study contributes to an understanding of factors leading to the success or failure of enterprise social media drawing on self-determination and social dilemma theory.