Sharing the North Fork Canyon Run: Insights from Game Theory for Cooperatives

摘要

It is pulling that many businesses and individuals forgo opportunities to join or organize cooperatives when such actions would benefit them. One reason for such missed opportunities is that "go-it-alone" decisions sometimes offer more immediate payoffs, or more certainty of outcome, than do efforts that involve sharing resources or participating in orderly marketing efforts. Game Theory analysis helps identify situations that may lead to coordinated decisions among various "players," depending on the way incentives are structured. An incentive structure can be conveniently displayed in a 2 x 2 pay-off matrix. These matrices provide a way to distinguish between "dominated" and "contingent" choices, which is a key to understanding the prospects for coordinated decisions. This analysis will be applied in this article to hypothetical rafting businesses that share a thin strip of white water on the North Fork Canyon Run.