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Economic opportunism is a term related to the subversion of morality to profit. There exists no agreed general, scientific definition or theory of economic opportunism; the literature usually considers only specific cases and contexts. There is also no agreement about ''why'' this is so. Oliver E. Williamson comments: Market trade supplies no universal morality of its own, except the law of contract and basic practical requirements to settle transactions, while at the same time legal rules, however precise in their formulation, cannot control ''every last detail'' of transactions and the interpretation (or implications) thereof. Since economic opportunism must be assessed against some relevant norm or principle, controversy about what that norm or principle should be, makes a general definition difficult.〔Chao C. Chen, Mike W. Peng, Patrick A. Saparito, "Individualism, Collectivism, and Opportunism: A Cultural Perspective on Transaction Cost Economics". In: ''Journal of Management'', Vol. 28 No. 4, 2002, pp. 567–583.()〕 *Economists frequently cannot even agree on the basic principles of the functioning of economic life, and consequently what constitutes a deviation from those principles is in dispute.〔Lex Donaldson, ''American anti-management theories of organization: a critique of paradigm proliferation.'' Cambridge University Press, 1995.〕 *Market trade is compatible with a great variety of moral norms, religions and political systems, and indeed supporters of the free market claim that this is exactly its advantage: people can ''choose their own values'', buying and selling as they wish within a basic legal framework accepted by all.〔Thomas C. Leonard, "The price is wrong: causes and consequences of ethical restraint in trade." ''Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines'', Volume 14, numéro 4, Décembre 2004, pp 1–17.()〕 *Economic action therefore involves a great variety of motives, some more honorable than others. *It is not feasible to outlaw many forms of economic opportunism, because any such law could not be effectively enforced, or, such laws would conflict with the civil rights or trading rights of citizens. People often complain about "over-regulation" or "too many rules" – too much "policing" may mean that they no longer take economic initiatives (or become confused about what rule to follow).〔"...mainstream economics has become obsessed with the ‘irresponsibility’ of opportunistic politicians who cater to an economically uneducated electorate by interfering with otherwise efficient markets, in pursuit of objectives — such as full employment and social justice — that truly free markets would in the long run deliver anyway, but must fail to deliver when distorted by politics". – Wolfgang Streeck, "The crises of democratic capitalism". ''New Left Review'' 71, September–October 2011.()〕 *It is often disputed in economics whether the opportunist, as a type of "entrepreneur", creates more opportunities for everybody by what he does, or whether the opportunist is a "pest" with a harmful effect on economic life. Evaluating this objectively can be extraordinarily difficult, because people may not even agree about what the true costs and benefits are. Adam Smith famously wrote in ''The Wealth of Nations'' that: If that Smithian view is accepted, then it is difficult to establish that "taking selfish advantage of an economic situation" can in any way be considered "opportunist", because it does not transgress any moral principle or principle of trade. Indeed, the pursuit of self-interest is in this view ''beneficial'' for all, it is exactly what makes the market tick. Furthermore, it is in the interest of market actors to conduct their affairs properly, because if their trading reputation is destroyed, they will be out of business. If it is believed that markets gravitate spontaneously to an equilibrium state, so that price-levels ensure that everybody gets what they want, how can there be any "opportunism"?〔See: Charles W. L. Hill, "Cooperation, Opportunism and the Invisible Hand: Implications for transaction cost theory", in: ''Academy of Management Review'', Vol. 15 No. 3, 1990, p. 500-513).〕 At best one could draw a subtle distinction between "selfishness" and "self-interest". For example, "self-interest" could be defined as a healthy concern with one's own wellbeing, necessary to survive and prosper, while "selfishness" could be defined as an exclusive or excessive concern with one's own advantage while disregarding the interests of others. Any trading relationship usually involves both cooperation between the trading partners, so that each gets what they want from others, and competition by each party to get the best deal for themselves. So the trading relationship is normally both self-directed and other-directed at the same time. The issue then is, just how far the concerns of other party or parties to the trade are really taken into account, or to what extent the expectations of others are fully met or honoured. "Selfishness" would then denote a ''specific type'' of self-interest which violates a ''shared'' principle of trade (or some other principle) in a way that is illegitimate, unfair, unjust in some sense (such as unfair trade, negligence or unfair competition). Adam Smith does not rule out that possibility, acknowledging implicitly that the self-interest and the interest of society may not ''always'' be compatible, only "frequently". Opportunism could then be thought of as an ''aberration'', a "market imperfection" or a "grey area" that sometimes occurs in normal trading activity. People would not normally trade, if they did not expect to gain something by it; the fact that they do trade, rather than simply rob each other, normally presupposes at least a respect for the basic rights of the party being traded with. Nevertheless the gains or benefits of trading activity (and indeed the losses), although entirely legal, might be distributed very ''unequally'' or in ways not anticipated by previous understandings, and thus accusations of "economic opportunism" can arise nevertheless in many different settings.〔Kurt Eggert, "Limiting abuse and opportunism by mortgage servicers". In: ''Housing Policy Debate'' (Fannie Mae Foundation), Vol. 15, Issue 3, 2004.()〕 The entitlement to make some economic gains is then considered to be illegitimate, in some way. If this is the case, relevant trading obligations (or civil obligations) are usually considered as not being (fully) met or honored, in the pursuit of economic self-interest. Greed is frequently mentioned as a primary motive for economic opportunism.〔Damian Saunders, "Mark Hurd and HP, economic opportunism and greed, one year on." ''Opinion'', 30 January 2010.() Dan Ackman, "Kozlowski Speaks!". ''Forbes Magazine'', 28 April 2005.() Ken Frost, "The Ongoing Trials of The Late Michael Jackson: Greed and Opportunism." 2 February 2005.()〕 Even so, people might just try to get the most out of a situation for themselves with the least effort they can get away with, disregarding the interests of others who also have a stake in the situation (see stakeholder). An editor of the Financial Times, Martin Wolf, remarked famously about the financial sector that "No () industry has a comparable talent for privatising gains and socialising losses."〔Martin Wolf, "Regulators should intervene in bankers’ pay". In: ''Financial Times'' (London), 16 January 2008.〕 Some years later, he explained that "Today’s banks represent the incarnation of profit-seeking behaviour taken to its logical limits, in which the only question asked by senior staff is not what is their duty or their responsibility, but what can they get away with."〔Martin Wolf, "Banking reforms after the Libor scandal." ''Financial Times'', 2 July 2012.〕 What exactly the rightful or correct obligations of trading parties are to each other, can be open to interpretation "in good faith" (bona fide) by those trading parties or other parties. It may depend on the "understanding" that exists in a business situation.〔Mitchel Abolafia, ''Making markets: opportunism and restraint on Wall Street''. Harvard University Press, 2001.〕 This creates the possibility that, even although – strictly speaking, or formally – everything is done "within the law", economic actors nevertheless do not (or not fully) honour their trading obligations in some way, for selfish motives, and therefore commit what amounts to deceit, trickery or cheating, by utilizing a somewhat different "interpretation", "intention", "expectation" or "understanding". Therefore there is always much controversy about ''what these obligations really are'', in the fine detail – it may be that "one man's opportunism is another man's opportunity". At issue here is, what one might legitimately expect a trading party to understand or comply with in a business deal, i.e. how the ''meaning'' of it is construed, which can differ between trading parties with a different stake or interest in the deal, and might itself change in the course of negotiations.〔See e.g. Ravi S. Achrol and Gregory T. Gundlach, "Legal and social safeguards against opportunism in exchange." ''Journal of Retailing'', Volume 75, Issue 1, Spring 1999, Pages 107–124.〕 Whether a trading activity is viewed as "opportunist" might just depend on one's moral viewpoint or informal expectation, because "there is no law against it". For this reason, institutional economics often evaluates economic opportunism in relation to those norms of acceptable human conduct that, though not necessarily stated in laws, are nevertheless ''implied'' by legislation or by jurisprudence. Glenn R. Parker〔In his book ''Self-policing in politics: the political economy of reputational controls on politicians'' (Princeton University Press, 2004, p.21).〕 claims that the five most discussed examples of ''economic'' opportunism are: *adverse selection *moral hazard *last-period exploitation, when it is known that competitors or stakeholders are not able to respond to a suitably timed selfish action. *reneging (in contracts), where a contractual agreement, promise, intention or understanding of a deal is not fully honoured by a party to the contract, for selfish motives, because it is possible "to get away with it" and/or because there is an incentive to do so.〔See e.g. G. Richard Shell, "Opportunism and trust in the Negotiation of Commercial Contracts: Toward a New Cause of Action." ''Vanderbilt Law Review'', Vol. 44, March 1991, pp. 221–282.〕 *shirking, involving some kind of negligence, or failure to acquit oneself of a duty (or a responsibility) previous agreed or implied (see also efficiency wages). In transaction cost economics, opportunism means self-interest seeking with guile, involving some kind of deliberate deceit and the absence of moral restraint. It could involve deliberately withholding or distorting important business information, shirking (doing less work than agreed), or failing to fulfill formal or informal promises and obligations. It occurs in trading activities especially where rules and sanctions are lacking, and where the opportunist actor has great power to influence an outcome by the attitude he assumes in practice. However, others〔Nicolai J. Foss and Peter G. Klein, "Critiques of transaction cost economics: An overview". ''Organizations and markets'', September 2009 ()〕 argue that this reflects a narrow view of economic opportunism, because there are many more ways that economic actors can take selfish advantage of other economic actors, even if they do not violate the law.〔See further Kuntara Pukthuanthong and Harry J. Turtle, "Legal Opportunism, Litigation Risk, and IPO Underpricing", January 2009 (); Paul J. Zak (ed.), ''Moral markets: the critical role of values in the economy''. Princeton University Press, 2008).〕 For example, managers can tilt the details of financial reporting in such a way that it favours their own position.〔Lan Sun and Subhrendu Rath, "Fundamental Determinants, Opportunistic Behavior and Signaling Mechanism: An Integration of Earnings Management Perspectives." ''International Review of Business Research Papers'' Vol. 4, No. 4, Aug–Sept. 2008, Pp. 406–420.()〕 ==References== 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「economic opportunism」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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