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Beyond Offers and Counteroffers: The Impact of Interaction Time and Negotiator Job Satisfaction on Subjective Outcomes in Negotiation
Abstract
In this study, we examined real‐world sales negotiations by collecting data in collaboration with a large Taiwanese eyeglasses company. We found, as has been established previously, that higher first offers predict higher company profits and that the impact of high opening offers can be muted by greater customer awareness of prices at other stores. When we investigated a more qualitative outcome, customers’ perceptions of service quality, a different set of predictors emerged. Our results indicate that salespeople who spent more time introducing the products and services were perceived by the customers as providing higher service quality, but this effect only occurred for those salespeople who reported high levels of job satisfaction. Also, price reduction by salespeople did not improve customer satisfaction. Our results indicate that customer satisfaction does not require negotiated price concessions, but rather depends on extensive interaction with salespeople who are happy in their work. This is the first study to show that negotiator job satisfaction can affect important negotiation outcomes.
... Role of the First Offer The first offer in a negotiation has been extensively studied in negotiation research with a broad consensus that the size of the first offer influences the outcome of negotiations. This first-offer effect has been shown in multiple studies in different analytical, experimental, and field settings (Sadanand 1996;Kristensen and Gärling 2000;Chi, Friedman, and Shih 2013;Yao, Ma, and Zhang 2018;Davis and Hyndman 2019). ...
Much attention has been devoted to the "first offer" in negotiation research. Rightly so, as strong empirical evidence shows that the first offer has a significant impact on the negotiated outcome and, therefore, is a highly relevant topic for negotiation scholars and practitioners. Scholars typically recommend making the first offer. However, in the field, we have observed an alternative opening tactic-asking for the best price that the counterpart is willing to accept. This question represents a real alternative to making the first offer by initiating the discussion of specific settlement proposals, provided the counterpart answers the query. Does it, however, lead the other side to make a better offer? How does the question impact the economic and relational outcomes of the negotiation? Is it advisable to use this tactic in negotiations? We investigated these questions based on a controlled laboratory experiment, in which 227 dyads of cellphone buyers and sellers negotiated synchronously via a text chat. We found that the best-price question has an impact on not only the first offer but also the negotiation outcome. When the buyers in our experiment asked the question, the results were not significantly different than those from negotiations in which they made the first offer. This effect was driven by the first offer in response to the question. Additionally, we found that the best-price question did not negatively impact the relational outcome. Moreover, the effect was reduced when list price information was available. These findings suggest rethinking the traditional view of the offer-counteroffer sequence and provide an alternative opening tactic to making the first offer in the context of high information asymmetry.
... The first offer effect has also been replicated in field studies. Chi et al. (2013) collected data on eyewear sales interactions of a Taiwanese eyeglass company and replicated the first offer effect and its interaction with customer reference values that reduced the first-offer effect. Other authors replicated the first offer effect in publicly available negotiation data of US warrants and international iron ore (Wilson, 2012;Yao et al., 2018). ...
There is a wide consensus that first offers have a significant impact on negotiation outcomes by causing an anchoring effect. Many aspects of first offers have been analyzed, including factors that lead to making the first offer and characteristics that strengthen the impact of first offers. However, a holistic view of the process of first offers in negotiations remains missing, and significant research gaps must be filled to fully understand the mechanisms of first offers. Furthermore, while extant research contains anecdotal advice for negotiators, no holistic overview of research findings has been presented to date. This study conducted a structured review of 119 journal articles published since 1967, contributing to the field in four main ways: (a) proposing a definition of first offers, (b) integrating previous findings into a process model of first offers in negotiation, (c) summarizing the results to date in a structured literature review, and (d) identifying crucial research gaps that must be addressed. Future research should conduct systematic investigations of the influence of first offers on negotiation outcomes, employing a "negotiation lens" to emphasize the dyadic and interactive character of negotiations.
... The first offer effect has also been replicated in field studies. Chi et al. (2013) collected data on eyewear sales interactions of a Taiwanese eyeglass company and replicated the first offer effect and its interaction with customer reference values that reduced the first-offer effect. Other authors replicated the first offer effect in publicly available negotiation data of US warrants and international iron ore (Wilson, 2012;Yao et al., 2018). ...
There is a wide consensus that first offers have a significant impact on negotiation outcomes by causing an anchoring effect. Many aspects of first offers have been analyzed, including factors that lead to making the first offer and characteristics that strengthen the impact of first offers. However, a holistic view of the process of first offers in negotiations remains missing, and significant research gaps must be filled to fully understand the mechanisms of first offers. Furthermore, while extant research contains anecdotal advice for negotiators, no holistic overview of research findings has been presented to date. This study is based on a structured literature review of 119 journal articles published since 1967, contributing to the field in four main ways: (a) proposing a definition of first offers, (b) integrating previous findings into a process model of first offers in negotiation, (c) summarizing the results to date in a structured literature review, and (d) identifying crucial research gaps that must be addressed. Future research should conduct systematic investigations of the influence of first offers on negotiation outcomes, employing a “negotiation lens” to emphasize the dyadic and interactive character of negotiations.
Negotiation researchers have conducted a large number of experimental lab studies to identify the factors that affect negotiation outcomes, but it remains unclear whether those results can be generalized to real-world negotiations. To explore this question, we analyzed the dynamic international iron ore annual negotiations that took place from 2005 to 2009. We found evidence that supports two important findings from previous experiments. Specifically, we focused on the impact of negotiators’ best alternatives and first offers on negotiation prices using multiple case study analysis. We found that iron ore prices increased more when the gap between the previous year's negotiated price and the price on the alternative spot market, a public market in which commodities are traded for immediate delivery, was larger, which suggested that buyers were sensitive to the strength of this alternative, supporting the literature on the role of alternatives. We also found that the first offer price significantly influenced the final price. Our findings extend two important experimental findings from the negotiation literature to large-scale business negotiations in the real world.
Purpose
This paper aims to present a review of articles on business negotiation published between 1995 and 2015.
Design/methodology/approach
This literature review is based on 490 articles on business negotiation.
Findings
When analyzing the conceptual underpinnings of this field, two paradigms emerge as dominant. The most prominent paradigm is a cognitive, psychological approach, typically relying on experiments and statistical testing of findings. The second dominating paradigm is a behavioral one, largely concerned with mathematical modeling and game-theoretical models.
Practical implications
Besides offering a description of the characteristics adhered to the business negotiation field, this paper will also suggest recommendations for further research and specify areas in which the research field needs further conceptual and empirical development.
Originality/value
This literature review serves to be the first representation of the characteristics adhered to the budding research field of business negotiation.
The attainment of quality in products and services has become a pivotal concern of the 1980s. While quality in tangible goods has been described and measured by marketers, quality in services is largely undefined and unresearched. The authors attempt to rectify this situation by reporting the insights obtained in an extensive exploratory investigation of quality in four service businesses and by developing a model of service quality. Propositions and recommendations to stimulate future research about service quality are offered.
This definitive textbook explains what CRM is, the benefits it delivers, the contexts in which it is used, how it can be implemented and how CRM technologies can be deployed to support customer management strategies and objectives. It also looks comprehensively at how CRM can be used throughout the customer life-cycle stages of customer acquisition, retention and development and how the management disciplines- marketing, sales, IT, change management, human resource, customer service, accounting, and strategic management are implicated in this. This completely revised edition also includes: A Tutor Resource pack available to instructors who adopt this text. Case examples illustrating CRM in practice. Screenshots of CRM software applications and reviews of technology applications deployed in marketing, sales and customer service. Student readers will enjoy the logical structure, easy accessibility and case illustrations. Managers will appreciate the book's freedom from CRM vendor and consultant bias and the independent guidance it provides to those involved in CRM programs and system implementations. This second edition has been completely revised and updated with eight new chapters. © 2009, Francis Buttle. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
The authors describe commercial friendships that develop between service providers and clients as one important tvoe of marketing relationship. They report results of five studies that employ quantitative and qualitative data analysis They develop a measure of commercial friendship, identify important correlates, and illustrate how friendships form Context and tension between instrumental and expressive goals circumscribe commercial friendships but friendships are associated with satisfaction, strong service loyalty, and positive word of mouth. Qualitative data illustrate varied temporal ordering among satisfaction, loyalty, and friendship for both service providers and clients. The authors identify implications of their findings for an array of industries in which commercial friendships may form.
The literature has produced an incomplete understanding of factors explaining the variance in price search in markets in which search is a regularly occurring activity. The authors develop a model of price search in the retail grocery industry by expanding the classic cost-benefit model and integrating psychosocial returns and concepts from human capital theory. The results indicate that prior investment search and market mavenism explain significant amounts of variance in price- and specials-related search, respectively, beyond that accounted for by economic costs and returns. The authors further explore the habitual nature of price search in this industry, consider the implications of the social value of price-specials information, and discuss the indirect impact of demographic characteristics. They consider implications for pricing strategy and competition, including reasons why previous research has found that executives overestimate consumer price search.
The authors expand and integrate prior price-perceived value models within the context of price comparison advertising. More specifically, the conceptual model explicates the effects of advertised selling and reference prices on buyers' internal reference prices, perceptions of quality, acquisition value, transaction value, and purchase and search intentions. Two experimental studies test the conceptual model. The results across these two studies, both individually and combined, support the hypothesis that buyers' internal reference prices are influenced by both advertised selling and reference prices as well as the buyers' perception of the product's quality, The authors also find that the effect of advertised selling price on buyers' acquisition value was mediated by their perceptions of transaction value, In addition, the effects of perceived transaction value on buyers' behavioral intentions were mediated by their acquisition value perceptions. The authors suggest directions for further research and implications for managers.
This study investigated 3 broad classes of individual-differences variables (job-search motives, competencies, and constraints) as predictors of job-search intensity among 292 unemployed job seekers. Also assessed was the relationship between job-search intensity and reemployment success in a longitudinal context. Results show significant relationships between the predictors employment commitment, financial hardship, job-search self-efficacy, and motivation control and the outcome job-search intensity. Support was not found for a relationship between perceived job-search constraints and job-search intensity. Motivation control was highlighted as the only lagged predictor of job-search intensity over time for those who were continuously unemployed. Job-search intensity predicted Time 2 reemployment status for the sample as a whole, but not reemployment quality for those who found jobs over the study's duration. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
In 2 dyadic bargaining experiments with a total of 133 male undergraduates, it was hypothesized that bargainers expect concessions to be reciprocated, and violations of this expectation result in fewer and smaller concessions. Ss were led to believe that they were bargaining with another S but actually bargained with a preprogrammed strategy used by the E. Frequency of reciprocated concessions was systematically varied, and Ss were also classified according to their motivational orientation (competitive vs cooperative). Using offers on the last trial as the main dependent variable, results show that (a) mean concessions were smaller in the incomplete reciprocity conditions, (b) Ss classified as cooperative conceded more than Ss classified as competitive, and (c) the effect of violation of reciprocity was greater for competitive Ss. It is suggested that a consistent pattern of reciprocated concessions may be the most effective way of inducing concessions. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
To study interpersonal bargaining in an environment of increased realism, a shopping simulation game allowing for face-to-face dyadic interaction was created to test the hypothesis that pretransactional expectations concerning the willingness of a seller to bargain, as well as whether or not price concessions are received through bargaining, will affect postpurchase consumer satisfaction, 64 male college students served as Ss. Levels of expectation were controlled through pre-experimental instructions, whereas participation in bargaining was manipulated by programming the behavior of confederate salesmen. Results of a multivariate ANOVA indicate that both expectation of a seller's willingness to bargain and the receipt of price concessions through bargaining were independent factors that affected postpurchase satisfaction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Argues that a category of performance called citizenship behavior is important in organizations and not easily explained by the same incentives that induce entry, conformity to contractual role prescriptions, or high production. Data were collected from 422 employees and their supervisors from 58 departments of 2 banks to examine the nature and predictors of citizenship behavior. Results suggest that citizenship behavior includes at least 2 dimensions: altruism, or helping specific persons, and generalized compliance, a more impersonal form of conscientious citizenship. Job satisfaction, as a measure of chronic mood state, showed a direct predictive path to altruism but not generalized compliance. Rural background had direct effects on both dimensions of citizenship behavior. The predictive power of other variables (e.g., leader supportiveness as assessed independently by co-workers and extraversion and neuroticism as assessed by the Maudsley Personality Inventory) varied across the 2 dimensions of citizenship behavior. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This study empirically examines organizational barriers to delivering high-quality service performance as measured by customer perceptions and expectations. Using the extended service-quality model developed by Zeithaml, Berry, and Parasuraman (Journal of Marketing, 52, 35–48) as a conceptual framework, five specific propositions implied by the model and by earlier studies contributing to its development were tested. Such testing required a complex research design involving five service companies as well as samples of customers, contact employees, and managers from each company. The results have practical implications and suggest an agenda for future organizational research.
An exploratory study was conducted to examine the organization of three often used measures of job satisfaction. Employing a convenient sample of 144 workers, who also were enrolled in evening graduate school courses, relationships between these job satisfaction measures and affective (positive and negative) and cognitive attitudinal components were assessed. The job satisfaction measures were found to vary considerably in terms of their affective and cognitive content. These results were discussed in terms of their relevance to the study of job attitudes.
This study focuses on the antecedents and consequences of displayed emotion in organizations. I propose that customers "catch" the affect of employees through emotional contagion processes. Results indicate that the display of positive emotion by employees is positively related to customers' positive affect following service encounters and to their evaluations of service quality. In a replication and extension of prior research, transaction busyness and employee emotional expressiveness are shown to predict displays of emotion by employees.
Customer relationship management's definition is also its ambition: the development and maintenance of mutually beneficial long-term relationships with strategically significant markets. The focus is on creating value for the customer and the company over the longer term. The value perceptions of the customer serve as bonds, or exit barriers, which inhibit the search for alternative sources of supply. The great American circus entrepreneur, P T Barnum, once said 'There's a sucker born every day'. One customer departs, another customer arrives. There's little doubt that Barnum provided great, spirited and inventive entertainment for his customers but he didn't expect them to come back. Once the show was over, a new 'sucker' had to be recruited. Today's businesses compete with multi-product offerings created and delivered by networks, alliances and partnerships of many kinds. Retaining customers is critical to corporate performance. This shift away from the marketing's conventional focus on the Barnum-like transaction rather than the relationship is being driven by, and enabled by, a number of changing business conditions. First, competition for the customer is becoming more intense. Local and national suppliers' locational advantage is being eroded as trade barriers are removed and geographic boundaries are redefined by the established and emergent trading blocs. As access to markets is becoming less localised, demands on logistics management and distribution partnering are becoming more significant. Second, markets are becoming more fragmented. In the more developed economies, we have moved from mass marketing – always associated with the condition of demand exceeding supply – through market segmentation, towards individualised marketing. This so-called one-to-one marketing strategy is based on the premise that customers will be more loyal and utter more positive word-of-mouth if value propositions are customised to meet their particular, perhaps unique, requirements. Third, customers are becoming more demanding. Their expectations for reliable product and responsive service are becoming more extreme. Customers demand more and are much less tolerant of failures. Customers compare their experiences against best-in-class expectations. For example, if it takes no paperwork and two minutes' interaction at a desk to hire a car, customers will want to know why it takes fifteen minutes and form-filling to check into a hotel. Expectations are a moving target. What used to delight customers a year ago is only likely to satisfy them today. What was once a motivator is now a hygiene factor.
While few scholars debate the importance of doing things to improve the quality of the buyer–seller relationship, little is
known about what salespeople can do after the point of the initial sale to enhance customer satisfaction and trust. On the
basis of extensive exploratory interviews across professional selling domains, this research develops a set of behaviors,
referred to here as “salesperson service behaviors.” Using data gathered from 358 customers, the authors empirically demonstrate
the effect of these behaviors on customer satisfaction and trust and, ultimately, on an objective measure of customer share
of market. The authors develop a competitive model that uniquely features customer evaluations of competing sales representatives.
The results indicate that these salesperson service behaviors are important in building trust and customer satisfaction, which
in turn lead to increases in customer share of market.
textlessptextgreaterThe attainment of quality in products and services has become a pivotal concern of the 1980s. While quality in tangible goods has been described and measured by marketers, quality in services is largely undefined and unresearched. The authors attempt to rectify this situation by reporting the insights obtained in an extensive exploratory investigation of quality in four service businesses and by developing a model of service quality. Propositions and recommendations to stimulate future research about service quality are offered.
Implementation of the marketing concept in service firms is accomplished through individual service employees and their interactions with customers. Although prior research has established a link between service-worker customer orientation and performance outcomes, little research has addressed other potentially important outcomes of customer orientation. Drawing from the literature on person-situation interaction and fit theory, the authors develop and test a model that explains how service-worker customer orientation affects several important job responses, including perceived job fit, job satisfaction, commitment to the firm, and organizational citizenship behaviors. Across three field studies in two distinct services industries, the results indicate that the positive influence of customer orientation on certain job responses is stronger for service workers who spend more time in direct contact with customers than for workers who spend less time with customers. The authors discuss the implications of the results for services marketing managers and researchers.
In this study, we examine culture-specific relationships between individual differences and distributive negotiations. We measured individual characteristics and their effects on distributive negotiations in both American[1] and Chinese cultures, using a Western-based scale (the 'Big Five') and a Chinese-based scale (CPAI). We found that agreeableness and extraversion (from the 'Big Five') affected negotiations for Americans, but not for Chinese. We found that harmony, face and Ren Qing (from the Chinese-based scales) affected negotiations for Chinese, but not for Americans. Specifically, we found that in the American culture, those higher in extraversion and agreeableness achieved lower economic gain, whereas in the Chinese context that those high in harmony, face, and Ren Qing were more likely to be influenced by opening offers and achieve lower economic gain in distributive negotiations. Our study highlights the need to examine negotiations using culturally sensitive constructs and measures.
Cross-cultural studies are necessary for the complete development of theories in environmental research since no one culture contains all environmental conditions that can affect human behavior. Likewise, no one country contains all possible types of man-made changes of the physical environment, nor all of the man-made adaptations to natural conditions such as climate, noise, air quality, and potential hazards. In addition, many places in which environmental researchers might be asked to work are in parts of the world where “development” is seen as a necessity or at least a desideratum. These places are often in countries where empirical research is not a well-established entity, hence the necessity for importing advisers from other countries. Although frequently forgotten (Fahvar & Milton, 1972), environmental assessments prepared by such advisers should include analyses of how a development project will affect a culture and even the behavior of people for whom the project was designed.
Using a simulated employment contract negotiation, this study examined the relationship between negotiation strategies and the quality of negotiated outcomes. A log-linear analysis showed that the frequency and sequencing of strategies was systematically related to negotiation outcomes. Impasse negotiations were characterized by the frequent use of contention and sequences that paired similar (either cooperative or competitive) strategies. Settlement was associated with decreased contention and the use of sequences that paired dissimilar strategies. Increasing joint gain was linked to the introduction of priority information and conciliation as well as to changes in the pattern of information exchange: Reciprocal and indirect (positional) information exchange led to low joint gain, whereas reciprocal and direct (priority) information exchange led to high joint gain.
The authors demonstrate that competition among brands in different quality tiers can be asymmetric both in brand choice ("what") and in category choice ("whether"). They also investigate how competition among quality tiers is affected by the direction of price changes (increase or decrease). Empirical findings from four scanner panel data sets consistently show that with price reduction, high-quality brands gain more than do low-quality brands both in "what" and "whether" decisions. Furthermore, high-quality brands are less vulnerable to losses when prices are increased. The authors conclude with implications for understanding quality tier competition and developing price promotional strategies.
The struggle to eradicate discrimination on the basis of race and gender has a long history in American law. Based on the widely held belief that such discrimination will occur only in markets in which racial or gender animus distorts competition, regulatory efforts have been limited to areas in which interpersonal relations are significant and ongoing, such as housing and employment. In this Article, Professor Ayres offers empirical evidence that seriously challenges faith in the ability of competitive market forces to eliminate racial and gender discrimination in other markets. His Chicago-based research demonstrates that retail car dealerships systematically offered substantially better prices on identical cars to white men than they did to blacks and women. Professor Ayres details the nature and startling degree of the discrimination his testers encountered and evaluates various theoretical explanations for their disparate treatment. Based on his conclusions, Professor Ayres explores routes by which "fair driving" plaintiffs might bring suits against dealerships and mechanisms through which regulators might effectively rid the retail car market of such discrimination.
Negotiators often fail to reach integrative (”win–win”) agreements because they think that their own and other’s preferences are diametrically opposed—the so-called fixed-pie perception. We examined how verbal (Experiment 1) and nonverbal (Experiment 2) emotional expressions may reduce fixed-pie perception and promote integrative behavior. In a two-issue computer-simulated negotiation, participants negotiated with a counterpart emitting one of the following emotional response patterns: (1) anger on both issues, (2) anger on participant’s high priority issue and happiness on participant’s low-priority issue, (3) happiness on high priority issue and anger on low-priority issue, or (4) happiness on both issues. In both studies, the third pattern reduced fixed-pie perception and increased integrative behavior, whereas the second pattern amplified bias and reduced integrative behavior. Implications for how emotions shape social exchange are discussed.
The idea that emotions regulate social interaction is increasingly popular. But exactly how do emotions
do this? To address this question, I draw on research on the interpersonal effects of emotions on behavior in personal relationships, parent–child interactions, conflict, negotiation, and leadership, and propose a new framework that can account for existing findings and guide future research: the emotions as social information (EASI) model. I demonstrate that emotional expressions affect observers’ behavior by triggering inferential processes and/or affective reactions in them. The predictive strength of these two processes—which may inspire different behaviors—depends on the observer’s information processing and on social-relational factors. Examples of moderators that determine the relative predictive strength of inferences and affective reactions include power, need for cognitive closure, time pressure, display rules, and the appropriateness and target of the emotional expression, which are all discussed.
This paper investigates the information dilemma in negotiations: if negotiators reveal information about their priorities and preferences, more efficient agreements may be reached but the shared information may be used strategically by the other negotiator, to the revealers' disadvantage. We present a theoretical model that focuses on the characteristics of the negotiators, the structure of the negotiation, and the available incentives; it predicts that experienced negotiators will out-perform naive negotiators on distributive (competitive) tasks, especially when they have information about their counterpart's preferences and the incentives are high—unless the task is primarily integrative, in which case information will contribute to the negotiators maximizing joint gain. Two experiments (one small, one large) showed that the revelation of one's preferences was costly and that experienced negotialors outperformed their naive counterparts by a wide margin, particularly when the task and issues were distributive and incentives were large. Our results help to identify the underlying dynamics of the information dilemma and lead to a discussion of the connections between information and social dilemmas and the potential for avoiding inefficiencies.
In this article, the authors explore the role of individuals’ counterfactual thoughts in determining their satisfaction with negotiated outcomes. When negotiators’ first offers are immediately accepted, negotiators are more likely to generate counterfactual thoughts about how they could have done better and therefore are less likely to be satisfied with the agreement than are negotiators whose offers are not accepted immediately. This reduction in satisfaction emerged even when the objective outcomes of negotiators whose first offers were immediately accepted were equal to or better than the outcomes of negotiators whose first offers were not immediately accepted. Evidence for a disconnect between objective outcomes and evaluations emerged in two scenario experiments and a simulated negotiation. The final experiment explored the functional and dysfunctional consequences of counterfactual activation following the immediate acceptance of first offers. Upward counterfactual thoughts were positively related to the amount of preparation for a subsequent negotiation; on the other hand, upward counterfactual thoughts were negatively correlated with the likelihood of making future first offers.
This paper examined negotiator behavior in a variable-sum two-party negotiation task and its impact on individual and joint negotiator out-come. Specifically, we examined the role of negotiator opening offer, reciprocity and complementarity of the use of tactics, systematic progression of offers, and information sharing in a negotiation with integrative potential. Results indicated that initial offers affect final outcome differently across buyers and sellers. The buyer's initial offer was curvilinearly related to his or her final outcome in the form of an inverted-U. The seller's initial offer was positive-linearly related to seller's outcome. Second, negotiators reciprocated and complemented both distributive and integrative tactics. In addition, highly integrative dyads differed from less efficient dyads in their reciprocation of integrative behaviors and complementarity of distributive behaviors. Third, approximately forty percent of offers made represented systematic concessions, but the proportion of offers reflecting systematic concessions was not related to the efficiency of the joint outcome. Finally, while information sharing did appear to have a positive effect on the efficiency of agreements, differences in the amount of information provided did not affect the proportion of outcome claimed by each party.
Pruitt and Carnevale's examination of behavior in negotiations and its antecedents and consequences looks at the nature of negotiator strategies and tactics and their impact on the outcomes of negotiation. Among the antecedents examined are the negotiator's role in his or her organization, conflict style, the other party's behavior, the way the issues are framed, and various aspects of the relationship between the parties. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Conventional wisdom holds that negotiators who are under time pressure should avoid revealing their final deadlines to the other side, especially if they are in a weak position. The present study questions this conventional wisdom. The experiment manipulates time pressure on the negotiators, knowledge of that time pressure, and each side’s power at the bargaining table. Power is manipulated by varying the quality of each side’s alternatives to negotiated agreement (BATNAs). Results show that negotiators benefited from revealing their final deadlines, regardless of the strength of their BATNAs. The discussion explores why this simple lesson is counterintuitive and why negotiators mistakenly believe they ought to keep their deadlines secret.
Using a simulated employment contract negotiation, this study examined the relationship between negotiation strategies and the quality of negotiated outcomes. A log-linear analysis showed that the frequency and sequencing of strategies was systematically related to negotiation outcomes. Impasse negotiations were characterized by the frequent use of contention and sequences that paired similar (either cooperative or competitive) strategies. Settlement was associated with decreased contention and the use of sequences that paired dissimilar strategies. Increasing joint gain was linked to the introduction of priority information and conciliation as well as to changes in the pattern of information exchange: Reciprocal and indirect (positional) information exchange led to low joint gain, whereas reciprocal and direct (priority) information exchange led to high joint gain.
The important relationship between consumer complaint behaviour and brand and store loyalty is well established. The range of factors that favourably influence the outcomes of complaining have received relatively less research attention. Therefore, this study tests the effects of two salesperson source characteristics: willingness to listen and product/store knowledge, on consumer complaint-related perceptions and intentions in a retail setting. Mall shoppers participated in a consumer complaint experiment to test the hypothesised effects. The results indicate that both characteristics affect customer complaint responses, as well as consumer perceptions of the salesperson and the retail store. The findings of the study demonstrate that salesperson characteristics are important influences on positive or negative consumer complaint responses. Copyright © 2001 Henry Stewart Publications.
This study investigated the effects of a bargaining strategy that rewards the opponent's concessions. The first of four experiments revealed that a negotiator's utilization of this reward strategy resulted in large concessions by and quick agreement with the opponent. The second experiment demonstrated that the large concessions continue after the rewards cease and the third, that two previously rewarded negotiatiors subsequently make large concessions to each other and reach quick agreements. Finally, the fourth experiment added strength to a reinforcement explanation of the results by eliminating an interpretation based upon a reciprocity effect.
We propose a normative model of transactional negotiation in which cooperative and competitive behaviors wax and wane across four stages: relational positioning, identifying the problem, generating solutions, and reaching agreement. Based on a classic proposition of communicative flexibility in high-context cultures, we propose culture-specific dyadic movements within and across these stages. Our sample included 102 high-context dyads from Russia, Japan, Hong Kong, and Thailand; 89 low-context dyads from Germany, Israel, Sweden, and the United States; and 45 United States-Hong Kong and United States-Japan mixed-context dyads. Dyads negotiated a complex, 90-minute transaction with integrative potential. We audiotaped, transcribed, and coded their negotiations for sequences of information and influence behaviors. The unit of analysis was the action-response sequence. Results confirmed that the pattern of sequences varied across the four stages and the frequency of particular sequences varied with culture. We suggest that negotiators can use this model to manage the evolution and strategic focus of their negotiation, especially during the first two stages, when the use of influence-information sequences and reciprocal-information sequences generate the groundwork for joint gains.
A quantitative review of 55 studies supports the conclusion that job attitudes are robust predictors of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). The relationship between job satisfaction and OCB is stronger than that between satisfaction and in-role performance, at least among nonmanagerial and nonprofessional groups. Other attitudinal measures (perceived fairness, organizational commitment, leader supportiveness) correlate with OCB at roughly the same level as satisfaction. Dispositional measures do not correlate nearly as well with OCB (with the exception of conscientiousness). The most notable moderator of these correlations appears to be the use of self- versus other-rating of OCB; self-ratings are associated with higher correlations, suggesting spurious inflation due to common method variance, and much greater variance in correlation. Differences in subject groups and work settings do not account for much variance in the relationships. Implications are noted for theory, practice, and strategies for future research on OCB.
The impact of involvement and ambiguity on satisfaction judgments for high-credence property services such as health care has not been studied. This study examines the level and process effects of involvement on satisfaction with two dimensions of a health-care service. We found that higher levels of customer involvement were associated with greater expectations and performance ratings for the ambiguous dimension of the service (physicians). Customer involvement had no influence on ratings for the nonambiguous aspects of the service (access mechanisms). Perceived performance was found to be the most influential predictor of satisfaction for low-involvement subjects. High-involvement subjects used disconfirmation and performance to evaluate physicians and only disconfirmation in forming satisfaction judgments for access mechanisms. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Product prices are often considered to be an indicator for quality. In our experiment we focussed on the question if consumers' hypotheses can be biased by exchanging the digits on price displays due to currency changes. We found that high numbers in a price expressed in terms of a currency with a relatively low value (German Mark) lead to a higher perceived quality level than an equivalent price expressed in terms of relatively high listed currency (Euro). Contrary to our expectations we could not prove that this effect is stronger for premium than for low‐budget products.
Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A 2-round negotiation study provided evidence that positive feelings resulting from one negotiation can be economically rewarding in a second negotiation. Negotiators experiencing greater subjective value (SV)—that is, social, perceptual, and emotional outcomes from a negotiation—in Round 1 achieved greater individual and joint objective negotiation performance in Round 2, even with Round 1 economic outcomes controlled. Moreover, Round 1 SV predicted the desire to negotiate again with the same counterpart, whereas objective negotiation performance had no such association. Taken together, the results suggest that positive feelings, not just positive outcomes, can evoke future economic success.
Prior to the establishment of the first formal courses in service management
in the early 1970s, little research had been carried out to examine the properties of service activities that distinguished
them from more-extensively examined activities of manufacturing
organizations. While the traditional techniques of manufacturing management were invaluable to service managers, it was quickly
discovered that service managers had to contend with a set of problems that the traditional tools could not solve.
Current measures of service quality do not adequately capture customers’ perceptions of service quality for retail stores
(i.e., stores that offer a mix of goods and services). A hierarchical factor structure is proposed to capture dimensions important
to retail customers based on the retail and service quality literatures as well as three separate qualitative studies. Confirmatory
factor analysis based on the partial disaggregation technique and cross-validation using a second sample support the validity
of the scale as a measure of retail service quality. The implications of this Retail Service Quality Scale for practitioners,
as well as for future research, are discussed.
This article reviews and integrates recent research in experimental social psychology and organizational behavior demonstrating the pervasive influence that affective states or moods have on judgments, decision making, and behavior in organizations. An information processing theory, the Affect Infusion Model (AIM) is described that can account for many of the empirical findings and also provides a promising theoretical base for future research in this area. The article reviews a range of experimental and applied studies consistent with the predictions of this model, demonstrating the role of information processing strategies in moderating affective influences on organizational behavior. Specifically, we discuss the influence of affect on such work-related behaviors as worker motivation, creativity and performance, interpersonal judgments and communication, performance appraisal judgments and selection interviews, organizational spontaneity, employee flexibility and helpfulness, absenteeism, and bargaining and negotiation behaviors. The implications of the information processing approach for understanding the influence of affect on organizational behaviors are discussed, and we argue for the greater integration of affect into contemporary theorizing and research in organizational settings.
We tested the hypothesis that the positive affect of powerful negotiators shapes the quality of negotiation processes and outcomes more than the positive affect of less powerful negotiators. Findings from two studies supported the hypothesis: powerful individuals' trait positive affect was the best predictor of negotiators' trust for each other and of whether they reached integrative outcomes. Positive affect predicted joint gains above and beyond negotiators' trait cooperativeness and communicativeness. However, positive affect was unrelated to distributive outcomes; thus, there were no observed disadvantages of being positively affective.
This study considers how relationship marketing is manifest in actual interactions between buyers and sellers involved in on-going relationships with varying degrees of relationship quality. Seven buyer–seller, interaction encounters were observed, audiotaped, and analyzed. Before observing the encounters, however, in-depth interviews were conducted with the buyers to determine their perceived quality of the relationships within which the interactions would occur. Qualitative and empirically based evidence suggest systematic, behavioral differences across the interactions. Specifically, the results suggest that relatively higher-quality relationships tend to exhibit more friendliness, less question asking, disagreement, and compliance behavior as compared with lower-quality relationships. Buyers in lower-quality relationships tend to dominate the interaction by disagreeing and talking a larger percentage of the time relative to buyers in higher-quality relationships. As the quality of the relationship increases, however, buyers disagree less and allow sellers more latitude in time spent talking.
In a series of laboratory experiments, we tested the influence of strategically displaying positive, negative, and neutral emotions on negotiation outcomes. In Experiment 1, a face-to-face dispute simulation, negotiators who displayed positive emotion, in contrast to negative or neutral emotions, were more likely to incorporate a future business relationship in the negotiated contract. In Experiment 2, an ultimatum setting, managers strategically displaying positive emotion were more likely to close a deal. This effect was mediated by negotiators’ willingness to pay more to a negotiator strategically displaying positive versus negative emotions. In Experiment 3, display of positive emotion was a more effective strategy for gaining concessions from the other party in a distributive setting. Negotiators made more extreme demands when facing a negotiator strategically displaying negative, rather than positive or neutral, emotions. Implications for strategic display of emotion in negotiations are discussed.
Human emotion is typically studied as a within-person, one-direction, non-repetitive phenomenon; focus has traditionally been on how one individual feels in reaction to various stimuli at a certain point of time. But people recognize and inevitably react emotionally and otherwise to expressions of emotion of other people. We propose that organizational dyads and groups inhabit emotion cycles: Emotions of an individual influence the emotions, thoughts and behaviors of others; others' reactions can then influence their future interactions with the individual expressing the original emotion, as well as that individual's future emotions and behaviors. People can mimic the emotions of others, thereby extending the social presence of a specific emotion, but can also respond to others' emotions, extending the range of emotions present. People can also draw attributions and extract meanings from others' emotions. Emotion cycles can involve both intended targets of or partners to an original emotion and third parties who were not the intended targets or partners. Emotion cycles are sensitive to various moderating factors, including demographic variables (e.g., gender or race) and situational variables (e.g., relative power of participants). Pertinent organizational and psychological research that supports the idea of emotion cycles is reviewed and shown to suggest a wide arena for future research.
This article described three heuristics that are employed in making judgements under uncertainty: (i) representativeness,
which is usually employed when people are asked to judge the probability that an object or event A belongs to class or process
B; (ii) availability of instances or scenarios, which is often employed when people are asked to assess the frequency of a
class or the plausibility of a particular development; and (iii) adjustment from an anchor, which is usually employed in numerical
prediction when a relevant value is available. These heuristics are highly economical and usually effective, but they lead
to systematic and predictable errors. A better understanding of these heuristics and of the biases to which they lead could
improve judgements and decisions in situations of uncertainty.