Ownership coordination in a channel: Incentives,returns, and negotiations

In many industries firms have to make quantity decisions before knowing the exact state of demand. In such cases, channel members have to decide which firm will own the units until demand uncertainty is resolved. The decision about who should retain ownership depends on the balance of benefit and risk to each member. Ownership, after all, is costly. Whichever member owns the units accepts the risk of loss if more units are produced than can be sold. But ownership also grants firms the flexibility to respond to demand once it becomes known by adjusting price. In this study, we analyze ownership decisions in distribution channels and how those decisions are affected by demand uncertainty. We model demand based on micro-modeling of consumer utility functions and capture demand uncertainty related to market size and price sensitivity. This study shows that as long as the degree of uncertainty about market size is intermediate, the retailer and the manufacturer both benefit when the manufacturer maintains ownership of the units. But when there is substantial uncertainty about market size, the retailer and the channel are better off if the retailer takes ownership but the manufacturer still prefers to maintain ownership. Thus, there is potential for channel conflict regarding ownership under high levels of uncertainty. We show that, using product returns, the manufacturer can achieve the same outcome under retailer ownership as under manufacturer ownership. This provides an additional new rationale for the prevalence of product returns. The first-best outcome (from the perspective of total channel profit), however, is under retailer ownership without product returns when uncertainty is high (i.e., product returns reduce the total channel profit). Negotiations between the manufacturer and the retailer can lead to the first-best outcome but only under quite restrictive constraints that include direct side payments by the retailer to the manufacturer and the retailer being pessimistic about its outside option (when an agreement cannot be reached) during the negotiation.     

The GATS negotiations: Implications for health and social services

Health and social services have so far attracted fewer commitments than virtually all other large sectors covered by the GATS. What are the reasons behind the low level of negotiating interest? What impact would GATS-bound reforms have on the provision of health and social services?     

Barriers in services trade: The state of negotiations and prospects

Trade in services constitutes one of the still unresolved problems in the Uruguay Round. What progress has been made so far in this field? Which are the remaining points at issue? What are the prospects for agreement on a comprehensive solution?     

国际贸易磋商与成本核算的研究

2010年我国GDP和GNP均超过日本,位居世界第二位,国际贸易也得到蓬勃发展,面对新局面,笔者从搞好国际贸易的磋商,然后准确计算外贸的产品单耗,从而代入推荐的公式对外报价,阐述了现实中的规范做法和自己的建议,希望对实际业务有所帮助.     

Culture and business networks: International business negotiations with Arab managers

The Arab world is an important economic region due to its natural resources, geographic location and political influence. However, limited attention has been paid to researching and understanding the way business is conducted in this region. We address this gap by exploring the key socio-economic, cultural and political factors that influence the negotiation process between Arab and non-Arab managers. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 Arab managers in Lebanon with experience in international business. The findings of the study show that: Arab negotiators place emphasis on building relationships and use referent power (wasta); the political uncertainty influences the bargaining power of the Arab negotiators and political volatility in the country influences the Arab managers’ use of time during negotiations.     

Qualitative representations of negotiations: Tutorial on a rule-based approach

This article introduces a logic-based approach for structuring and representing negotiation problems and for supporting negotiators. It is argued that rule-based formalism allows for integrating decision-making aspects unique and specific to negotiations with general reasoning mechanisms based on rationality postulates. The discussion of the rule-based systems and its application to negotiation modeling and support is preceded by an outline of qualitative and quantitative approaches to problem representation and reasoning, and an overview of predicate calculus. The advantages and disadvantages of rule-based systems and their ability to capture complex negotiation decision processes and reasoning are also given.     

A comparison of Japanese and American business negotiations

The determinants of the outcomes of business negotiations in two cultures are investigated in a laboratory experiment. The most important causal factor in Japanese negotiations was found to be the role (i.e., buyer or seller) of the negotiator. Japanese buyers consistently achieved higher bargaining solutions than Japanese sellers. The primary causal factor in negotiations between Americans was the information content of bargaining strategies. Americans to whom bargaining partners gave information more freely achieved higher bargaining solutions.     

Conflict analysis of the NAFTA negotiations

The 1991–92 negotiations for a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) are modelled at two points in time during the negotiation process from a Mexican perspective. The first model in February 1992 captures the positions of the parties on several key issues. The second model in April 1992 concentrates on the energy issue, which is of particular importance to Mexico. The formal model provided a framework for structuring the negotiation, and a communications medium for discussing and recording it. The analyses were fairly accurate as predictors of events and could have been effective in giving advice to the negotiations.     

Trust and reciprocity with transparency and repeated interactions

This paper uses data from a controlled laboratory environment to study the impact of transparency (i.e., complete information versus incomplete information) and repeated interactions on the level of trust and trustworthiness (reciprocity) in an investment game setting. The key findings of the study are that transparency (complete information) significantly increases trusting behavior in one-shot interactions. This result persists in repeated interactions. Further, transparency appears important for trustworthiness in one-shot interactions. In addition, repeated interaction increases trust and reciprocity with or without transparency. These results suggest that transparency is important in building trust in business environments such as alliances and joint ventures which are loosely connected organizational forms that bring together otherwise independent firms. It also provides support for the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) and similar legislation elsewhere which attempt to regain investors' trust in corporate management and financial markets by stipulating enhanced disclosures.     

Issue linkage and issue tie-in in multilateral negotiations

We describe a model of international, multidimensional policy coordination where countries can enter into selective and separate agreements with different partners along different policy dimensions. The model is used to examine the implications of negotiation tie-in — the requirement that agreements must span multiple dimensions of interaction — for the viability of multilateral cooperation when countries are linked by international trade flows and transboundary pollution. We show that, while in some cases negotiation tie-in has either no effect or can make multilateral cooperation more viable, in others a formal tie-in constraint can make an otherwise viable joint multilateral agreement unstable.     

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.     

Confrontation analyses of United States-Soviet grain negotiations

From 1976 until 1991, the government of the former Soviet Union bought wheat and coarse grains grown in the United States, from private grain companies, under the terms of Long Term Agreements (LTAs). The author conducted interviews with U.S. and Soviet government officials actively involved in the negotiations to establish the terms of those LTAs. Analyses of the negotiations were carried out using confrontation theory. The subsequent analysis shows how the changing issues, actors and positions over time affected the grain trading relationship between the two countries.     

Understanding consumer-to-consumer interactions in virtual communities: The salience of reciprocity

Virtual communities (VCs) represent popular social environments in which people interact by exchanging resources such as information, ideas, and advice about their common interests. Existing research lacks an explication of why people help others in VCs and how such voluntary behaviors drive subsequent attitudes (VC commitment) and behavioral intentions (online co-shopping). This article adopts resource exchange theory to examine how two routes of interactivity (structural vs. experiential) influence reciprocity and affect commitment and co-shopping. Using a netnography study and an online survey, the authors confirm the significant effects of structural and experiential routes of interactivity on reciprocity. Reciprocity has critical effects on social system maintenance by enhancing commitment to the community and intention to co-shop. The results also identify partially mediated relationships among various variables, which suggest that the effects of the experiential route on VC commitment and co-shopping operate partly through reciprocity.     

Ethics in business education: Working toward a meaningful reciprocity

This paper outlines and argues against some criticisms of business ethics education. It maintains that these criticisms have been put forward due to a misunderstanding of the nature of business and/or ethics. Business ethics seeks a meaningful reciprocity among economic, social and moral concerns. This demands that business organizations autonomously develop ethical goals from within, which in turn demands a reciprocity between ethical theory and practical experience. Working toward such a reciprocity, the ultimate goal of business ethics education is a moral business point of view through which one can live with integrity and fulfillment.To everyone who proposes to have a good career, moral philosophy is indispensible. Cicero, De Officiis, 44BC W. Michael Hoffman is Chair and Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Director at the Center for Business Ethics, Bentley College, Waltham, MA. He has received the following Grants: Council for Philosophical Studies, NEH Fellow, NDEA Fellow, Matchette. His most important publications are: Kant's Theory of Freedom: A Metaphysical Inquiry (UPA, 1979); Proceedings of the National Conferences on Business Ethics, 5 volumes (1977–1984); Business Ethics (McGraw-Hill, 1984) and articles in Journal of Business Ethics, Idealistic Studies, International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, Journal of Thought, The Journal for Critical Analysis, and The Southern Journal of Philosophy.Paper presented at the 16th Conference on Value Inquiry, entitled: Ethics and the Market Place: An Exercise in Bridge-Building or On the Slopes of the Interface.     

隐性与显性的优势互补——内容营销与传统广告的全方位解析

内容营销作为一种隐性的广告形式,已经成为显性传统广告的有利补充,但二者又有着本质的差别。内容营销所要传达的广告信息往往是隐藏在娱乐内容之中,在潜移默化之中引起消费者对品牌的共鸣,这是内容营销与传统广告的最大不同。同时,由于二者表现形式的不同,导致广告主的传播策略、广告创意空间及广告效果测评等方面也存在很大差别。本文通过对内容营销与传统广告的全方位解析,探求二者如何实现优势互补。     

Collaborative collective bargaining: Toward an ethically defensible approach to labor negotiations

In this paper I explain the present adversarial collective bargaining process (ACB) and then critique it on legal and ethical grounds. A new methodology, that I describe as the collaborative collective bargaining process (CCB), will then be explained and similarly critiqued. I argue that replacing the present ACB model with the CCB model will result in better long-term results for all parties concerned. This is because the ACB model is comparable, in many respects, to the adversarial process used in court litigation. It is a combat model based on power. ACB makes the battle lines clear, and it grants victory to the more convincing display of power, but it leaves casualties. Indeed it cannot operate except upon the casualties of the opposing party, and those casualties are the basis for ever-renewed combat. Tactics employed in ACB to achieve victory include deception, lying and the abandonment of truth as a moral value. I argue that, in sharp contrast, CCB can foster an environment which encourages candor and truthfulness. By following the CCB model, the parties can avoid the negative and self-defeating elements of ACB and can work together toward mutually beneficial goals by the use of an ethically defensible approach to labor negotiations. Frederick R. Post, J.D., M.B.A., is Assistant Professor of Business Law and Management at The University of Toledo. His research interests include business ethics and labor management relations. Professor Post teaches labor policy courses. Previously, he spent twelve years as a labor lawyer and has represented employers as chief negotiator in adversarial collective bargaining with many private sector international unions. He is the author of A Management Perspective on Collective Bargaining (1985) and Unionization Under the National Labor Relations Act: Organizing Through Collective Bargaining (1979).     

Conflict resolution with robustness in international negotiations: A game theoretic approach

A robust game theoretic approach for constructing effective international concords for conflict solving is discussed. Ann-person cooperative game in characteristic function form is used for international conflict solving via formation of coalitions. The nucleolus and the augmented nucleolus as solution concepts of the game are derived on its alternative forms, and robustness of the solutions when the evaluation of the coalition values is varied is examined. For solving this problem, parametric linear programming is used. This approach provides in a resemblant form an-alternative device to solving the fuzzy linear programming based on interval analysis.     

Labor-management contract negotiations in an electronic meeting room: A case study

We present perhaps the first case study of labor-management contract talks conducted in an electronic meeting room supported by a computer Negotiation Support System (NSS). The organization's union and management representatives spent a total of 57 hours (13 sessions) in the electronic meeting room; their efforts resulted successfully in a contract ratified by both sides. The NSS described comprised three tools from theGroup Systems electronic meeting system and three ad hoc tools. Besides the NSS, three other intervention factors were introduced in tandem with the NSS: new negotiation process techniques, the active involvement of third party mediators, and a unique negotiation setting. The new process techniques were introduced based on the goals of integrative bargaining and the Win-Win techniques. The negotiation process was divided into three distinct stages: strategy, issues, and bargaining.     

关于多边贸易谈判方式和谈判策略的初步分析

在国际贸易谈判中,各国因为利益关注和谈判力量不同而采取不同的谈判方式。多边和双边谈判各有特点,也都有不足。多边贸易体制中的双边磋商正是结合了两者的优点,在多边谈判中得以广泛应用。对于谈判策略,成员需根据自身的进攻和防守利益的情况采取相应的选择。