Collaboration strategies in turbulent periods: Effects of perception of relational risk on enterprise alliances

A study at the enterprise level is carried on, through a simulation model, to explore different aggregate behaviors emerging from individual collaborative strategies and the effects of innovation diffusion. In particular, turbulent periods are taken into account (e.g. an Economic, Financial or Environmental crisis), during which the individual perception of the enterprises can be distorted both by exogenous factors and by endogenous ones. The crisis makes it evident for the enterprises the urge to revise their business model in order to adapt it to the changes of the external environment and of the competitive scenario. The analysis is carried on by means of agent based simulation, employing a comprehensive tool (E3) internally developed and here described. The results are mostly qualitative ones and show that, in response to crisis, communication complexity is reduced, power and influence become centralized, and concern for efficiency increases, leading to conservation of resources and greater behavioral rigidity in organizations. © 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.