Dr. Anastasia Sergeeva (RSM) will present her paper “Values-based Trust as a Shift Parameter for Collective Organizing: The Case of Magnum Photos“.

The paper discusses how economic agents can address the concern of opportunism when organizing collectively. The study examines Magnum Photos, a cooperative of freelance photographers, and identifies two mechanisms by which shared values engender non-calculative trust, making collective organizing economically viable. The shared values attenuate hazards of opportunism, promote risk-bearing and innovation when property rights are assigned appropriately, and the size of the collective remains relatively small. The study concludes that Magnum Photos is a form of collective entrepreneurship adopted by risk-bearing agents bound by shared values, and provides unique insights into how economic agents can organize around shared values to mitigate opportunism and innovate in industries with measurement problems.

Please send an email to collective-action@rsm.nl if you would like to attend this seminar.