Opportunistic Behavior

Opportunistic behavior is the notion that one party will take advantage of a specific circumstance given the choice in order to benefit their own self interests. This type of behavior may range from a criminal robbing a store at gun point to a company taking advantage of cheap labor in another country in order to produce a product. Although these two circumstances are very different, they both potentially display opportunistic behavior in the sense that one party is promoting their own self-interests with disregard of the consequences whether directly or indirectly on others.

More specifically, a robber would directly harm the store owners and society as a whole in order to expand his economic interests. A company that outsources its production process to a country where there are trade advantages would benefit the company at the expense of its laborers. These are simply general examples of where opportunistic behavior can be clearly seen. In the real world however, opportunistic behavior can be difficult to see because of the lack of information. It’s difficult to often see the true intentions or incentives that drive a certain individual or party. The application of the concept of opportunistic behavior is especially prevalent when it comes to economics in the sense that this type of behavior can be seen as being unethical or immoral. Societal values dictate whether a certain choice is acceptable or not. There is often conflicting values between the self-interests of an individual and what is acceptable, but this is not mutually exclusive. Individuals can pursue their own self-interests without negatively affecting others or by even bettering others as well.

One example in which I have personally experienced the chance of behaving opportunistically was when I was faced with the decision of whether or not to sell my tickets to a concert that I had purchased. I was faced with a dilemma of whether I should go to this show and ultimately decided not to go because my friends could not attend this concert with me. Since this was a sold out show, the demand for tickets was incredibly high. I had seen multiple people asking for these tickets through online media such as facebook and craigslist demanding tickets for above the market price. Ticket scalping is an example of opportunistic behavior in which people sell tickets above the market price for shows that are sold out or with incredibly high demand. It is often looked down upon but not enforced whatsoever through local laws. I had initially bought my ticket for $30 and I advertised my concert ticket to my friends on facebook. I had multiple offers of $100+ from a few of my friends but I ultimately decided to forgo this economic profit by selling it for what I had paid for to one of my close friends.

I decided not to behave opportunistically in order to benefit my self-interests because I looked at the situation as simply helping out my friend. Another reason that I believed that I did not act opportunistically was because I wanted to be seen as an ethical individual. People often look down upon ticket scalpers because their business practice revolves entirely on acting opportunistically in order to promote their economic interests. In the end, my choice to sell my ticket for the base value was definitely worth it in my opinion. My friend was wholeheartedly appreciative of being able to buy my ticket and he later gave me free tickets to another concert.