Negotiation: an Interdisciplinary Approach

Citation:

Rami Zwick and Harish Sujan (1994) ,"Negotiation: an Interdisciplinary Approach", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 21, eds. Chris T. Allen and Deborah Roedder John, Provo, UT : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 435.

Advances in Consumer Research Volume 21, 1994      Page 435

NEGOTIATION: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH

Rami Zwick, University of Pittsburgh

Harish Sujan, Penn State University

Negotiated exchanges occur frequently not only in business markets but also in consumer markets. In consumer markets the trend is for greater negotiation activity. Product categories such as airline tickets, hotel rooms, and interest rates, that used to be fixed in price, are now negotiable. Despite the real-world importance the consumer behavior literature includes very little on negotiation and the research that has been published is relatively narrow in its theoretical scope. The rich arrays of theoretical paradigms that exist for the study of bargaining and negotiation, for example in behavioral decision theory, economics, social cognition, motivation, and management science research, have scarcely been tapped. A step towards remedying this vacuum was taken through this special topic's session.

The first presentation titled "An Analysis of Team Versus Solo Negotiations," based on work done by Leigh L. Thompson, University of Washington, Susan E. Brodt, University of Virginia, and Erika Peterson, University of Washington, was presented by Susan Brodt. Teams, two or more people working together to achieve a common goal, while negotiating with solo opponents were found to be remarkably effective in increasing the size of the total amount of resources to be divided. However, they were not able to claim a significantly larger share of these resources.

The second presentation titled "Raising Expectations for Success in Future Negotiations: The Influence of Optimism and Positive Mood," based on work done by Harish Sujan, Penn State University, Timothy R. Graeff, Middle Tennessee State University, and Rami Zwick, University of Pittsburgh, was presented by Harish Sujan. Optimists were found to fulfill their expectations for success through a more prosocial route than pessimists. Optimists were also found to be more receptive to a positive mood state than pessimists; the mood caused them to increase their expectations for success.

The third presentation titled "The Negotiation Process: The Role of Agenda Setting, Power, and Expectations for Future Interactions," based on work done by David Brinberg, Virginia Tech, and Shanker Ganesan, S.U.N.Y. Albany, was presented by Shanker Ganesan. The effects of power imbalance, expectations for future interactions and agenda (issue by issue versus multiple issues at the same time) on personal and joint outcomes were reported. The mediating effects of specific negotiation behaviors, aggression, compromise and problem-solving, were also reported.

The final presentation titled "An Empirical Investigation of the Expectation of Future Bargaining Interaction on Process and Outcome Efficiency," based on work done by P.V. (Sundar) Balakrishnan and Charles Patton, Ohio State University, was presented by Sundar Balakrishnan. A new methodology for measuring the process and outcome efficiency of negotiations was first presented. Then the effect of expectations of future interactions on these efficiencies was examined. Lastly, the value of this examination for aiding decisions on sequential versus simultaneous negotiation agendas was discussed.

The session was chaired by Kim Corfman.

----------------------------------------