Comparative Analysis of Text Data in Successful Face-to-Face and Electronic Negotiations

Various combination of Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning methods offer ample opportunities wherever texts are an important element of an application or a research area. Such methods discover patterns and regularities in the data, seek generalization and in effect learn new knowledge. We have employed such methods in learning from a large amount of textual data. Our application is electronic negotiations. The genre of texts found in electronic negotiations may seem limited. It is an important research question whether our methods and findings apply equally well to texts that come from face-to-face negotiations. In order to confirm such more general applicability, we have analyzed comparable collections of texts from electronic and face-to-face negotiations. We present our findings on the extent of similarity between these two related but distinct genres. In this study we have analyzed similarities in the text data of electronic and face-to-face negotiations. The results show that – in certain conditions – vocabulary richness, language complexity and text predictability are similar.This is an expanded version of a paper published in the Proceedings of FINEXIN 2005 (Workshop on the Analysis of Formal and Informal Information Exchange during Negotiations), 31–42, Ottawa, Canada, May 2005.     

Hot Versus Cool Behavioural Styles in Electronic Negotiations: The Impact of Communication Mode

In this paper, we study the effects of synchronous and asynchronous communication mode on electronic negotiations. By applying content analysis, we compare the negotiation processes of two e-negotiation simulations conducted in a synchronous and an asynchronous setting. Our results show significant differences in communication behaviour of subjects. Synchronous negotiation mode leads to less friendly, more affective, and more competitive negotiation behaviour. In the asynchronous communication mode, negotiators exchange more private and task-oriented information and are friendlier. These results suggest that negotiators in the asynchronous mode, who have more time to reflect, cool down and control emotions better while negotiators, who communicate synchronously engage more in emotional and competitive “hot” debates. In addition, negotiators in the asynchronous mode are more satisfied with the process and outcome of the negotiation. We conclude that de-individuation and escalating effects might be caused by communication mode rather than by the ability of the media to transmit social cues.     

Negotiation beliefs: Comparing Americans and the Chinese

We address the micro foundations of international business research by examining negotiation beliefs as a parsimonious guide for international business negotiators. We conceptualise the construct of ‘negotiation beliefs’ as a negotiator’s cognition about the nature of negotiation and effective negotiation strategies. We integrate the negotiation literature and empirically investigate the differences and similarities in the negotiation beliefs of Americans and the Chinese. Across two studies, we conduct a conceptual analysis of negotiation beliefs and develop measures for the culturally similar and culturally different factors of the negotiation beliefs of Chinese and American negotiators. We find that negotiation beliefs can predict negotiation outcomes. Our findings indicate that Americans and the Chinese share negotiation beliefs about cooperation and competition. They also understand negotiation using culturally different factors, namely hierarchy and relationship for the Chinese and economic interest and confrontation for the Americans. We further discuss the theoretical and practical implications for international negotiations, particularly regarding disputes between the US and China.     

How Much Do We Say? Using Informativeness of Negotiation Text Records for Early Prediction of Negotiation Outcomes

Business negotiations represent a form of communication where informativeness, i.e., the amount of provided information, depends on context and situation. In this study, we hypothesize that relations exist between language signals of informativeness and the success or failure of negotiations. We support our hypothesis through linguistic and statistical analysis which acquires language patterns from records of electronic text-based negotiations. Empirical results of machine learning experiments show that the acquired patterns are useful for early prediction of negotiation outcomes.     

Social Embeddedness in Electronic Negotiations

This study contributes to electronic negotiation research by analyzing the role of social embeddedness of actors in a controlled laboratory experiment. In particular, we analyze the effect of prior negotiator relationship in different conflict levels in web-based negotiations. We hypothesize that with increasing intensity of conflicts, negotiators who have a personal relationship use more value creating strategies compared to anonymous negotiators. As a consequence, we also hypothesize to find fewer impasses in electronic negotiations involving subjects who are socially embedded. Our results confirm that, in fact, in severe conflicts socially embedded actors reach significantly more agreements than subjects of the control group while such an effect is not found in weak conflict situations. These findings are related to more yielding between embedded actors but not to more value creating behavior. From these results, we can conclude that socially embedded negotiators better manage to reach agreements in difficult situations. Furthermore, an institutionalized pre-negotiation phase which allows negotiators to establish a personal relationship can counteract the threat of impasses.     

The antecedents of renegotiations in practice—an exploratory analysis

In order to support business negotiations with electronic tools effectively, a deep understanding of real-life business negotiations is required. Comparing the settings usually applied in negotiation experiments with the every-day experiences of business negotiators, it can be stated that the work of business negotiators is much more iterative and embedded. Renegotiations appear on a regular basis. This observation stresses the importance of flawless communication in business negotiations and raises questions regarding the reasons for renegotiations and the role of information technology in this context. This paper investigates data gathered in a 2005 survey study in order to identify the context factors that drive B2B renegotiations using a preliminary regression model. The rules of interaction, task complexity, and business relationship are found to be significant predictors of the renegotiation likelihood while media richness does not impact the likelihood of renegotiations in practice.     

Negotiators' Communication, Perception of Their Counterparts, and Performance in Dyadic E-negotiations

The aim of this study was to improve our understanding of negotiation strategies, behaviors, and outcomes, and the relationships between these factors based on data collected from questionnaires, actual behavior during the negotiation process implemented using e-negotiation system, and the negotiation outcomes. This study clustered the negotiators based on either the negotiators' own strategies or their thoughts about those of their partners. This resulted in a division into cooperative and noncooperative clusters. We found that the negotiators whose own strategies are less cooperative tend to submit more offers but fewer messages. However, these people consIDer that they have less control over the negotiation process compared with those who adopt a more cooperative strategy, who make fewer offers but send more messages. Those in the cooperative cluster consistently feel friendlier about the negotiation and more satisfied with the outcome and their performance. Further, there is a correlation not only between self-strategies and the thoughts about partners' strategies, but also between strategies and final agreements. Finally, the proportion of negotiations reaching agreement is larger for the cooperative cluster than for the noncooperative cluster.     

Ethical reasoning in business‐to‐business negotiations: evidence from relationships in the chemical industry in Germany

This article explores managers’ ethical reasoning for behaviors in price negotiations using evidence from 15 in‐depth interviews conducted with sales and purchasing representatives in the chemical industry in Germany. Applying transaction cost economics, we find that negotiators in commoditized market‐like exchanges either refer to deontological norms such as not to lie, or they neglect a role for ethics, arguing that distributive negotiation is per se opportunistic. In contrast, exchanges of products with higher asset specificity lead to stronger informational integration which is supported with teleological justifications. Some negotiators use teleological justification to build business on trust rather than on economic safeguards as their firm norms would require. For negotiators, our results suggest considering institutional context and adjusting ethical reasoning to the negotiation situation. Firms need to recognize and find ways to address the potential conflicts of their internal norms with their frontline managers’ attempts to act in the firms’ best economic and ethical interests.     

Negotiation and design: Supporting resource allocation decisions through analytical mediation

The common element of all negotiations is change. Design is the key to directing and managing change, and resource allocation is the most critical component of design. Negotiations about change are, therefore, fundamentally, negotiations about design and resource allocation. Negotiations vary along a continuum, from those in which negotiators have consonant interests (share objectives) to discordant ones (disagree about appropriate objectives). The joint distribution of all possible payoffs defines thestructure of the negotiation problem—the opportunities the problem affords and constraints it imposes on negotiators. The analytical mediation approach supports the activities of an impartial, neutral third party who attempts to assist the disputants to reach a mutually satisfactory agreement. It makes use of different types of techniques to support negotiations, depending on their location along the negotiation continuum. Two case studies involving analytical mediation are reported. One case study involves a budgeting exercise, in which the negotiators' interests were essentially consonant. The second case study involves a labor-management contract problem, in which the negotiators' interests were highly discordant.     

Preference Structures of Negotiators and Negotiation Outcomes

Using a database collected during about 3,000 negotiation experiments, this paper analyzes how specific features of utility functions of negotiators, like attribute weights, monotonicity and convexity of marginal utility functions, are reflected in the outcomes of negotiations. We find that compromise values are to a considerable extent influenced by the utility functions. There are also significant impacts on the likelihood of achieving a compromise, but the model fit is considerably less than for compromise values.     

Towards a Structured Design of Electronic Negotiations

Global communication networks and advances in information technology enable the design of information systems facilitating effective formulation and efficient resolution of negotiation problems. Increasingly, these systems guide negotiators in clarifying the relevant issues, provide media for offer formulation and exchange, and help in achieving an agreement. In practice, the task of analysing, modelling, designing and implementing electronic negotiation media demands a systematic, traceable and reproducible approach. An engineering approach to media specification and construction has these characteristics. In this paper, we provide a rationale for the engineering approach that allows pragmatic adoption of economic and social sciences perspectives on negotiated decisions for the purpose of supporting and undertaking electronic negotiations. Similarities and differences of different theories that underlie on-going studies of electronic negotiations are identified. This provides a basis for integration of different theories and approaches for the specific purpose of the design of effective electronic negotiations. Drawing on diverse streams of literature in different fields such as economics, management, computer, and behavioural sciences, we present an example of an integration of three significant streams of theoretical and applied research involving negotiations, traditional auctions and on-line auctions.     

浅谈商务谈判中礼貌原则的应用

商务谈判是指不同的经济实体各方为了自身的经济利益和满足对方的需要,通过沟通、协商、妥协、合作、策略等各种方式,把可能的商机确定下来的活动过程.谈判人员的语言艺术水平的高低直接影响了谈判的结果和成效.语用策略是为实现预期的交流目的而灵活应用的语言表达方式和技巧.礼貌作为一种交流工具,是为特定的交流目的服务的、在商务谈判这一特定的环境下,呈现出其独有的规律和作用.     

NegoManage: A System for Supporting Bilateral Negotiations

In this paper we present the NegoManage system, which aims at supporting the bilateral negotiation during all negotiation phases. The support includes the problem structure identification, the analysis of individual preferences of both parties, the messaging and offers exchange and the post-negotiation improvements of the agreement. The preference analysis is supported with a novel mechanism involving the specification of the classes of alternatives’ quality that represent particular levels of potential satisfaction from accepting this alternative as the negotiation solution. The consistency of preferences is also checked. The actual negotiation phase is performed in a typical way, namely the negotiators exchange multiple offers and messages. The novelty introduced in this phase is the mechanism for profiling the negotiators based on the classification of exchanged messages. The post-negotiation optimization phase employs the concept of a bargaining solution for improving the solution obtained in the previous negotiation phase. We present the way the mechanisms proposed work using simple numerical examples.     

Mediation with Incomplete Information: Approaches to Suggest Potential Agreements

In bilateral Negotiation Analysis, the literature often considers the case of complete information. In this context, since the negotiators know the value functions of both parties, it is not difficult to calculate the Pareto efficient solutions for the negotiation. Thus rational negotiators can reach agreement on this frontier. However, these approaches are not applied in practice when complete information is not available. The research question of our work is “It is possible to help negotiators achieving an efficient solution in the absence of complete information regarding the different parameters of the model?”. We propose to derive incomplete information about the preferences of negotiators from the statements they make and the offers they exchange during the negotiation process. We present and discuss three approaches that use this information in order to help a mediator proposing a better solution than the compromise the negotiators have reached or are close to reach.     

A prototype NSS based on problem structure and suggestions toward more comprehensive negogiation support

Seeking an effective approach to supporting negotiation through the use of computer technology, we have constructed a prototype negotiation support system based on the concept of problem structure. Problem structure refers to the characteristics of the feasible settlement space and efficient frontiers as defined by the joint utility distribution of negotiators' utilities. Problem structure is recognized as playing a major role in negotiation processes and outcomes. The cognitive complexity and inherent uncertainty of typical negotiations make it difficult for negotiators to effectively visualize and “navigate” the settlement space defined by the problem structure. As a result, negotiators often resort to suboptimizing heuristics which produce inefficient and/or unsatisfying outcomes. It follows that a promising approach to negotiation support is to exploit the computational speed and graphics capabilities of computer technology to make problem structure and its implications more accessible. Thus, our prototype is designed to allow negotiators to hypothesize problem structure and to explore and manipulate the resulting settlement space quickly and easily. Preliminary experimentation has demonstrated the value of this approach and has suggested areas for extended, comprehensive support. A negotiation process formalism, Cognitive Action Theory, neural network technology, and computer simulation are well-suited to providing more comprehensive support, and we suggest an architecture for delivery through NSS.     

The Interplay of Communication and Decisions in Electronic Negotiations: Communicative Decisions or Decisive Communication?

Whilst much research has been conducted on decision support for electronic negotiations and some research has been done on communication support in this area, there is a lack of research on the interplay between these two elements of negotiations. The questions whether both are equally important, whether one effects the other, or whether they show counter-effects are important both for negotiation training (i.e. what should be the focus for becoming a good negotiator) and for system research (i.e. which system support elements need to be developed). The current paper presents results of a controlled laboratory experiment with negotiators that were provided with decision support and communication support and negotiators that had only communication support available. The impact of decision support on the communication process and on outcome dimensions as well as the impact of communication behaviour on the negotiation process and the qualitative dimensions of the outcome will be discussed.     

“I am Disgusted by Your Proposal”: The Effects of a Strategic Flinch in Negotiations

To flinch in negotiations refers to verbal or physical displays of shock, disgust, or disbelief made in response to an opening offer. We investigated the impact of advising negotiators to strategically flinch in distributive bargaining. In experiment 1, negotiators who flinched claimed significantly more value than negotiators who did not flinch. Targets of a flinch, however, viewed the negotiation relationship less positively than negotiators in a control condition. Yet, flinching appeared to have no effect on the target negotiators’ perceptions of how well they did. In experiment 2, the notion that a subtle flinch might still facilitate value claiming but without imperilling the bargaining relationship was supported. Implications for negotiation theory and practice, and directions for future research, are discussed.     

Evolving and Taking CATNAPS to Negotiation/Problem Stories

In this GDN 2010 meeting commentary, the author presents an overview of CATNAPS (Connectedness And Technology for Negotiation And Problem Solving)—as a technology framework for evolving “right” problems/solutions in individual and group negotiation and problem solving. Although the focus in this commentary is mostly on humans, negotiators (agents) may be humans or computers. We consider taking CATNAPS to negotiation/problem stories meaning applying CATNAPS to various specific problems, negotiation/problem stories.