Competitive vs. Collaborative Orientation

What it measures

Measures whether a person habitually emphasises self-distinctiveness and competition (competitive orientation) or favours cooperation, integration, and assimilation (collaborative orientation). Higher scores reflect a more collaborative disposition. Used as a manipulation check in studies examining how competitive vs. collaborative advertising messages affect sharing behaviour.

Response format

7-point Likert (strongly disagree / strongly agree)

Scale items

• I do not care if I hurt people on my way to success. (r)
• It annoys me when other people perform better than I do. (r)
• It is important to treat everyone nicely.
• I prefer to work with others in a group rather than working alone.

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

Four items selected from a 13-item personality measure by Stapel & Koomen (2005). Items 1 and 3 trace to Martin & Larsen (1976); items 2 and 4 trace to Wagner (1995). Alphas ranged from .71 to .81 across three studies and two ad conditions. Items 1 and 2 are reverse-scored. Lower alphas suggest some caution with internal consistency.

Recommended companion scales

Citation

Ju, I., He, Y., Chen, Q., He, W., Shen, B., & Sar, S. (2017). The mind-set to share: An exploration of antecedents of narrowcasting versus broadcasting in digital advertising. Journal of Advertising, 46(4), 473–486.

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