<span>Collaboration is widely studied and continues to draw attention from academics and practitioners alike. This paper builds on an everyday practitioner’s puzzle: Why are good collaborative practices difficult to duplicate? This paper uses an existing theoretical framework to explore the concept of pragmatic collaboration, and introduces the concept of rational divergence, which can weaken collaboration. Clearly the ever-changing economic, political, social, and technical world requires managers to continuously align incentives for individuals, firms, and the industry by way of policy to create a “winning” environment. Let us suppose that all incentives to collaborate are aligned, a culture of trust is present, and that economic, political, social, and technical matters are addressed. Even in such an ideal situation, individuals may diverge from a stated goal. Although some researchers have said that this divergence is because of lack of incentives or because of opportunism, this paper will suggest a different reason—that the divergence is seen as rational by the individual, based on that person’s own local set of circumstances. Such rational divergence results in sub-optimal participation during collaboration, both within companies and among supplier relationships. An individual may be reluctant to participate in collaboration, or try delaying tactics. The paper explores the idea of rational divergence; that individuals deliberately make decisions that result in reduced collaboration. The study looks at perceived opportunism and pragmatic collaboration, while asking the question, “What happens if we take the concept of trust out of the equation?” This paper reviews the elements of rational divergence, opportunism, and pragmatic collaboration, away from the overall dimension of trust. Following are eight results from this study: 1. As perceived potential opportunism increases, the likelihood of joint knowledge-creation, such as that associated with pragmatic collaboration, decreases. 2. Where high perceived </span><span>potential rational divergence is present, increasing opportunism will have a more severe impact on pragmatic collaboration than low rational divergence. All else being equal, lower rational divergence can achieve better pragmatic collaboration for the same level of opportunism. 3. Joint knowledge-creation is negatively related to perceived potential opportunism, all else equal. 4. Although joint knowledge-creation is positively related to customer training, the relationship is not statistically significant. 5. Joint knowledge-creation is positively related to customer patience, but this relationship is not statistically significant. 6. Perceived potential rational divergence moderates the relationship between joint knowledge-creation and perceived opportunism. 7. Perceived potential rational divergence does not moderate the relationship between joint knowledge-creation and customer training. 8. Perceived potential rational divergence does not moderate the relationship between joint knowledge-creation and customer patience. The conclusions of this study are the following: 1. Careful consideration needs to be given to manage rational divergence in our organizations, thus enabling the possibility of practice pragmatic collaboration. Organizations are very complex, and it may not be possible to eliminate rational divergence through management. But management can definitely try to channel it and manage it as much as possible. 2. The conceptualization of rational divergence moderates the relationship between perceived opportunism and pragmatic collaboration. 3. It is difficult to emulate best practices because individuals, for context specific reasons, may choose to diverge and thus create a unique level of complexity in an organization that needs to be managed. 4. Best practices should not refer merely to a process intended to be copied; but more importantly, best practices should point to a way of implementing this process in order to control the presence of rational divergence or mitigate its effects.Doctorate of Management Programs</span>
