Cooperative Exchange with Substitutable Ties and Its Competitive Outcomes

Abstract

With a model of tie substitution, a construct that reflects each actors

evaluation of his or her social relations or networks, this study proposes

that each actors subjective evaluation of objective structural constraints

may facilitate or delay the realization of structural constraints in general

and the division of cooperative benefits in particular. It shows the following:

first, ego with few (perceived) substitutable ties is likely to accept the

unequal allocation of cooperative benefits; second, symmetry in tiesubstitution

at the global network suppresses (aggravates) competition for

the division of cooperative outcomes when individual tie-substitution is low

(high).