Counteraction to Competitors’ Learning and «Trojan Horse» Teaching in Economic Behaviour

Abstract

In teaching, one can come across dishonesty and rivalry as well help and cooperation. For instance, a person can hinder a competitor’s learning or misuse the situation of teaching in order to damage a competitor. In the changing world, a blow directed against a person’s ability to learn and to master new kinds of activity can be most damaging. From the point of view of scientific economics, counteraction to a competitor’s learning, or teaching a competitor knowledge that is not to his or her advantage, is an intentional effort to diminish the competitor’s human capital. The author suggests a theoretical approach towards this problem and describes the results of an empirical study.