Scholars@Duke
Kimberly A. Wade-Benzoni

Kimberly A. Wade-Benzoni

Professor of Business Administration
Fuqua School of Business
kimberly.wadebenzoni@duke.edu
Fuqua, Durham, NC 27708

Selected Publications

The Andrew Carnegie Effect: Legacy Motives Increase the Intergenerational Allocation of Wealth to Collective Causes

Journal Article Social Psychological and Personality Science · March 1, 2025 Andrew Carnegie was known for proclaiming that people have an obligation to leave their wealth to collective causes that benefit society. Yet, people tend to think of legacy within the constraints of their familial circles. In our work, we show that a simp ... Full text Cite

Legacy: The meaning of lasting impact for family, business, and beyond

Journal Article Journal of Family Business Strategy · September 1, 2024 The concept of legacy exists at the core of family business research, yet as a construct, the nature of what legacy is and why and how legacy matters across generations has been poorly understood (Hammond, Pearson, & Holt, 2016). This lack of conceptual cl ... Full text Cite

Models of intragroup conflict in management: A literature review

Journal Article Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization · October 1, 2020 The study of intragroup dynamics in management studies views conflict as a contingency process that can benefit or harm a group based of characteristics of the group and context. We review five models of intragroup conflict in management studies. These mod ... Full text Cite

It's the thought that counts over time: The interplay of intent, outcome, stewardship, and legacy motivations in intergenerational reciprocity

Journal Article Journal of Experimental Social Psychology · November 1, 2017 Sometimes the well-intended actions of prior generations result in undesirable outcomes to subsequent generations. Our research highlights the role of making the intention of past generations transparent in intergenerational resource allocations. We demons ... Full text Cite

The creation of opportunity is an opportunity to create: Entrepreneurship as an outlet for the legacy motive

Journal Article Research in Organizational Behavior · January 1, 2017 As evidence has accumulated that entrepreneurs may pay a financial penalty for their career choice, researchers have struggled to explain the motivation that might lead individuals to pursue the creation of new firms, technologies, and opportunities. We in ... Full text Cite

Noblesse oblige emerges (with time): Power enhances intergenerational beneficence

Journal Article Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes · May 1, 2015 Across four experiments, we examine how the experience of power affects intergenerational decision-making. We argue, and empirically demonstrate, that the experience of power enhances intergenerational beneficence. This effect emerges because the experienc ... Full text Cite

It's only a matter of time: death, legacies, and intergenerational decisions.

Journal Article Psychological science · July 2012 Intergenerational decisions affect other people in the future. The combination of intertemporal and interpersonal distance between decision makers in the present and other people in the future may lead one to expect little intergenerational generosity. In ... Full text Cite

The ethical mirage: A temporal explanation as to why we are not as ethical as we think we are

Journal Article Research in Organizational Behavior · September 24, 2010 This paper explores the biased perceptions that people hold of their own ethicality. We argue that the temporal trichotomy of prediction, action and recollection is central to these misperceptions: People predict that they will behave more ethically than t ... Full text Cite

The legacy motive: A catalyst for sustainable decision making in organizations

Journal Article Business Ethics Quarterly · January 1, 2010 In this article, we review and build on intergenerational and behavioral ethics research to consider how the motive to build a lasting legacy can impact ethical behavior in intergenerational decision making. We discuss how people can utilize their relation ... Full text Cite

Leaving a legacy: Intergenerational allocations of benefits and burdens

Journal Article Business Ethics Quarterly · January 1, 2010 In six experiments, we investigated the role of resource valence in intergenerational attitudes and allocations. We found that, compared to benefits, allocating burdens intergenerationally increased concern with one's legacy, heightened ethical concerns, i ... Full text Cite

A tale of two theories: Integrating the uncertainty management and group value models of justice

Journal Article Academy of Management 2009 Annual Meeting: Green Management Matters, AOM 2009 · December 1, 2009 Three studies - a vignette study, a survey, and a laboratory experiment - were conducted to reconcile two of the most dominant theories in the justice literature, the uncertainty management and group value theories. These studies hypothesize and find an in ... Cite

The egoism and altruism of intergenerational behavior.

Journal Article Personality and social psychology review : an official journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc · August 2009 Some of the most important issues in society today affect more than one generation of people. In this article, the authors offer a conceptual overview and integration of the research on intergenerational dilemmas-decisions that entail a tradeoff between on ... Full text Cite

A tale of two theories: Integrating the uncertainty management and group value models of justice

Conference Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings · January 1, 2009 Three studies - a vignette study, a survey, and a laboratory experiment - were conducted to reconcile two of the most dominant theories in the justice literature, the uncertainty management and group value theories. These studies hypothesize and find an in ... Full text Cite

The hot and cool of death awareness at work: Mortality cues, aging, and self-protective and prosocial motivations

Journal Article Academy of Management Review · January 1, 2009 Although death awareness is pervasive in organizations and can have powerful effects on employees' experiences and behaviors, scholars have paid little attention to it. We develop a theoretical model of the nature, antecedents, and consequences of death aw ... Full text Cite

Pushing the boundaries: A review and extension of the psychological dynamics of intergenerational conflict in organizational contexts

Journal Article Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management · August 26, 2008 We review previous research on intergenerational conflict, focusing on the practical implications of this research for organizational leaders. We explain how the interaction between the interpersonal and intertemporal dimensions of intergenerational decisi ... Full text Cite

In fairness to future generations: The role of egocentrism, uncertainty, power, and stewardship in judgments of intergenerational allocations

Journal Article Journal of Experimental Social Psychology · March 1, 2008 In this paper, we found that fairness judgments in intergenerational allocation decisions depend on (1) individuals' position in the intergenerational sequence (i.e., whether they are in the preceding or succeeding generation), (2) the amount of uncertaint ... Full text Cite

When "sacred" issues are at stake

Journal Article Negotiation Journal · January 1, 2008 Full text Cite

The malleability of environmentalism

Journal Article Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy · December 1, 2007 In this article, we predict and find that self-perceptions of environmentalism are changed by subtle manipulations of context and, in turn, affect environmental behavior. In Study 1, we found that people exhibit greater positive assessments of their enviro ... Full text Cite

The dynamic interaction of context and negotiator effects: A review and commentary on current and emerging areas in negotiation

Journal Article International Journal of Conflict Management · November 23, 2007 Purpose - The purpose of this article is to review and comment on recent and emerging trends in negotiation research, and to highlight the importance of the interactions between various dimensions of negotiation. Design/methodology/ approach - Consistent w ... Full text Cite

Toward an Understanding of Psychological Distance Reduction between Generations: A Cross-cultural Perspective

Journal Article Research on Managing Groups and Teams · June 16, 2006 We explore how cultural factors at both socio-economic and psychological individual levels affect the present generation's beneficence toward future generations in organizations and society. We examine how socio-economic mechanisms may influence the presen ... Full text Cite

Legacies, Immortality, and the Future: The Psychology of Intergenerational Altruism

Journal Article Research on Managing Groups and Teams · April 26, 2006 Acting on the behalf of future generations can require nontrivial sacrifice on the part of the present generation. Yet, people can gain important social psychological benefits from such acts, such as experiencing a connection to an entity that will presuma ... Full text Cite

Managing relationships across generations of academics: Psychological contracts in faculty-doctoral student collaborations

Journal Article International Journal of Conflict Management · February 1, 2006 Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to apply psychological contract theory to the study of faculty-doctoral student collaborations. Design/methodology/approach – Through a survey of 170 doctoral students, four types of psychological contracts were inves ... Full text Cite

INTERGENERATIONAL IDENTIFICATION AND COOPERATION IN ORGANIZATIONS AND SOCIETY

Journal Article Research on Managing Groups and Teams · January 1, 2003 The literature on identity and identification can enrich our understanding of intergenerational behavior in organizations and society. In this chapter, I outline factors that lead the present generation to categorize future generations as part of their in- ... Full text Cite

Cognitions and behavior in asymmetric social dilemmas: a comparison of two cultures.

Journal Article The Journal of applied psychology · February 2002 This study investigated whether cognitions and behavior in an asymmetric social dilemma can be predicted by national culture. Results indicated that, as predicted, groups of decision makers from Japan--a collectivist, hierarchical culture-were more coopera ... Full text Cite

Too tough to die: September 11, mortality salience, and intergenerational behavior

Journal Article Journal of Management Inquiry · January 1, 2002 As a resident of lower Manhattan, the author reflects on her own experience of September 11 and discusses how terror management theory (TMT) can help explain behavior following the attacks. TMT predicts and research confirms that mortality salience increas ... Full text Cite

A golden rule over time: Reciprocity in intergenerational allocation decisions

Journal Article Academy of Management Journal · January 1, 2002 In this article, I offer theoretical and empirical groundwork for the study of intergenerational issues and highlight the relevance of intergenerational behavior to organizations. I focus on situations involving conflict between generations in which a pres ... Full text Cite

Barriers to resolution in ideologically based negotiations: The role of values and institutions

Journal Article Academy of Management Review · January 1, 2002 Although traditional behavioral decision theory as applied to negotiation sheds light on some of the barriers encountered in negotiations, it does not fully account for many of the difficulties and failures to reach settlement in ideologically based disput ... Full text Cite

Understanding the influence of environmental standards on judgments and choices

Journal Article Academy of Management Journal · January 1, 2000 This article offers a cognitive account of the means versus ends focus of environmental regulation. The first of two studies suggests that standards (the means) exert an influence on judgments of proposed environmental solutions that is independent of the ... Full text Cite

The Negotiation Matching Process: Relationships and Partner Selection.

Journal Article Organizational behavior and human decision processes · December 1999 We present 3 studies that examine the process of partner selection in negotiations and the influence that relationships may have on the partner-selection decision. In Study 1, we present a simulated matching market experiment in which we compare the matchi ... Full text Cite

Thinking About the Future: An Intergenerational Perspective on the Conflict and Compatibility Between Economic and Environmental Interests

Journal Article American Behavioral Scientist · January 1, 1999 The current “win-lose” versus “win-win” debate on the relationship between economic competitiveness and environmental protection is biased toward win-lose by a narrow focus on the economic interests of a specific actor. When economic interests are broadene ... Full text Cite

A Mixed-Motive Perspective on the Economics Versus Environment Debate

Journal Article American Behavioral Scientist · January 1, 1999 The debate over the relationship between economic development and environmental protection has polarized into the opposing perspectives of win-lose (distributive bargaining) or win-win (integrative bargaining) outcomes, reminiscent of the debate that occur ... Full text Cite

Explaining how preferences change across joint versus separate evaluation

Journal Article Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization · January 1, 1999 This paper examines how preferences for outcomes change across joint versus separate evaluation of alternatives. In joint evaluation, two (or more) options are presented and evaluated simultaneously. In separate evaluation, each option is presented and eva ... Full text Cite

Negotiating with yourself and losing: Making decisions with competing internal preferences

Journal Article Academy of Management Review · January 1, 1998 The field of organizational behc vior includes the study of how individuals organize and manage conflict among themselves. Less visible has been the study of conflicts occurring within individuals. We propose that one form of intrapersonal conflict is the ... Full text Cite

The role of judgment in global climate change

Conference GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE · January 1, 1997 Link to item Cite

Egocentric interpretations of fairness in asymmetric, environmental social dilemmas: Explaining harvesting behavior and the role of communication

Journal Article Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes · January 1, 1996 This research explores the effects of egocentric interpretations of fairness, expectations about other actors' harvesting decisions, and communication on the focal actor's harvesting decisions in asymmetric social dilemmas. We found support for the predict ... Full text Cite

Linking strategy and human resource practices: How employee and customer contracts are created

Journal Article Human Resource Management · January 1, 1994 Organizations implement their business strategies through the human resource (HR) practices they use. These practices are major determinants of employees' psychological contracts. How employees interpret the terms of their employment impacts motivation, in ... Full text Cite