Actors. Individual persons or corporate groups who engage in exchange.

Alternatives. Alternative sources (typically, alternative exchange partners) for obtaining valued outcomes within a single exchange domain.

Average power. The average of two actors' dependencies on each other.

Average reward power refers to the average of the actors' dependencies on each other for rewards, and average punishment power to the average of their dependencies on each other for punishments.

Dependence. An actor is dependent on another to the extent that outcomes valued by the actor are contingent on exchange with the other. Dependence is a function of both value and available alternatives.

Exchange. The mutual giving and receiving of valued outcomes by two actors.

Exchange costs. Defined broadly as any negative value obtained through exchange (including punishments), but used specifically to refer to the negative value incurred by the actor who performs an exchange behavior (i.e., opportunity costs, investment costs, actual loss of resources, and costs intrinsic to the behavior).

Exchange domains. A class of outcomes that are functionally equivalent in the sense that the receipt of one outcome in the class reduces the value of all outcomes within that class.

Exchange network. A set of two or more connected exchange relations.

Exchange opportunity. An occasion on which an exchange can be initiated.

Exchange outcomes. The positive or negative value received from another actor through exchange.