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Vol.:(0123456789)
Group Decision and Negotiation (2021) 30:507–528
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10726-020-09721-y
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Trust Building viaNegotiation: Immediate versusLingering
Effects ofGeneral Trust andNegotiator Satisfaction
JingjingYao1 · MartinStorme1
Accepted: 24 December 2020 / Published online: 3 January 2021
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. part of Springer Nature 2021
Abstract
Building long-term trustful relationships with counterparts is a crucial objective
for many negotiators. Despite numerous “snapshot” trust studies, little is known
about the dynamics of trust change as the outcome in the negotiation context. In this
study, we examined how negotiators’ general trust and different types of satisfac-
tion affect their trust change toward counterparts immediately as well as lingeringly.
We conducted a negotiation simulation with 260 participants, measuring their trust
one week before, immediately after, and one week after the negotiation. We found
that negotiators’ general trust and outcome satisfaction were positively associated
with their trust change immediately after the negotiation. In addition, negotiators’
relationship satisfaction was positively associated with their trust change over the
following week. The research findings achieve a comprehensive and dynamic under-
standing of trust building in negotiations.
Keywords Trust· Trust building· Negotiation· Negotiator satisfaction
1 Introduction
Negotiators often attempt to build trustful relationships with counterparts through
the negotiation, because trust can help them implement the agreement terms (Cam-
pagna etal. 2016), reduce transaction costs (Connelly etal. 2018), and strengthen
future cooperation (Krishnan etal. 2006). Famed investor Warren Buffett once said:
“we only want to link up with people who we like, admire, and trust” (Cunning-
ham and Buffett 2013, p. 408) because “we have never succeeded in making a good
deal with a bad person” (Cunningham and Buffett 2013, p. 348). Despite the well-
acknowledged importance of trust building in negotiations, the empirical studies on
* Jingjing Yao
j.yao@ieseg.fr
Martin Storme
m.storme@ieseg.fr
1 IESEG School ofManagement, 3 Rue de la Digue, 59800Lille, France
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