This project examines how stable cooperation can be established and maintained under conditions of pronounced uncertainty. Using laboratory experiments, surveys, interviews, and text analysis, it investigates how communication and informal agreements can reduce misunderstandings and support cooperation. A particular focus lies on sustainability transitions in supply chains, where firms and their partners must redefine expectations, responsibilities, and performance criteria while preserving efficient cooperative relationships.
Pronounced uncertainty in today’s global environment, driven by economic volatility, geopolitical conflict, and climate change, makes it increasingly difficult to establish and maintain cooperative relationships. At the same time, cooperation is essential for addressing many of the sources and consequences of these uncertainties, including climate change. Drawing on the concept of relational contracts from organisational economics, this research examines how cooperation can be fostered in uncertain environments through several interconnected studies.
The first two studies investigate in laboratory experiments how trading parties can structure communication and informal agreements to clarify the terms of their relationship and sustain cooperation under uncertainty. Further studies apply the relational-contracts framework to sustainability transitions in supply chains. Such transitions involve considerable uncertainty due to technological change, shifting consumer preferences, and evolving sustainability standards. They often require firms and their supply-chain partners to renegotiate expectations, responsibilities, business practices, and performance criteria.
The research primarily aims to advance academic knowledge but is closely connected to real-world organisational challenges. Its findings may inform the development of practical tools for improving communication and structuring informal agreements under uncertainty.
