Category Archives: Behavioural Economics

Commercial Special Sauce – Trust

In a recent Commitment Matters article, Tim Cummins said: My hope for 2022 is that the commercial community raises its voice and promotes the ethical standards and supporting systems that alone can move us along the path to making trust-based collaboration a … Continue reading

Posted in Behavioural Economics, Behaviours, Collaboration, Collaborative Contracting, Formal Relational Contract, Relational Contracting, the What | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Presenting at 2021 Virtual Academic Symposium on “Relational Contracting: Theory and Practice”

I am excited to announce that I will be speaking at tonight’s 2021 Virtual Academic Symposium on “Relational Contracting: Theory and Practice” which is being jointly conducted by The Center for Corporate Reputation at Said School of Business, University of … Continue reading

Posted in Behavioural Economics, Collaborative Contracting, Conference | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

How to Nudge a Performance Based Contract (PBC) – Part 2

In the previous article (see How to Nudge a Performance Based Contract (PBC) – Part 1) I described how successful contracts deliver the desired outcomes of both buyers and sellers; the classic “win-win” outcome that we all strive for.  We … Continue reading

Posted in Behavioural Economics, Nudging, the What, the Why | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

How to Nudge a Performance Based Contract (PBC) – Part 1

Commercial instruments, especially sophisticated ones such as Performance Based Contracts (PBCs), have the ability to shape the behaviour of both buyer and seller.  While many commercial practitioners see contracts in their simplest form, an explicit and directive agreement between buyer … Continue reading

Posted in Behavioural Economics, Nudging, the How, the Why | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Perverse Incentive Follow-up

In earlier articles (see Perverse Incentives – Part 1 and Part 2,  and Unintended and Perverse Outcomes) I discussed the importance of checking the Performance Management Framework (PMF) within your Performance Based Contract (PBC) to watch for perverse incentives.  Those … Continue reading

Posted in Behavioural Economics, Book, Case Study, Incentives, Nudging, perverse incentives, the How, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Perverse Incentives – Part 2

In the previous article (see Perverse Incentives – Part 1) I discussed why PBC practitioners need to be aware of the potential for perverse incentives in our PBC arrangements.  In this article let’s look at how PBC practitioners, both buyers and … Continue reading

Posted in Behavioural Economics, Behaviours, the What | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Unintended and Perverse Outcomes

A colleague from the Australian Department of Defence (thanks Hayley!) recently sent me a link to an article from the Canberra Times about “Losing our way: How the cult of the KPI has damaged our moral compass”.  This article is partly … Continue reading

Posted in Behavioural Economics, Case Study, Incentives, Outcome | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Understanding Behavioural Economics

In a previous post I had suggested those interested in Behavioural Economics should have a look at a free online course via http://www.edx.org titled Behavioural Economics in Action from the University of Toronto. While you can do this course at any … Continue reading

Posted in Behavioural Economics, Behaviours, Nudging, the Why | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Carrot and Stick (Part 1)

I am currently reading Richard Thaler’s new book, “Misbehaving – The making of Behavioural Economics” which has again brought up an interesting and long running debate on the application of positive incentives (gains or “carrots”) or negative incentives (losses or … Continue reading

Posted in Behavioural Economics, Behaviours, the Why | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

History of Behavioural Economics

For those you have read my thoughts on the use of Behavioural Economics as a method of optimising our approach to Performance Based Contracting (PBC) (see earlier posts on Is Your Contract Fun? and Designing Successful PBCs) I wanted to … Continue reading

Posted in Behavioural Economics, Nudging | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment