IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/iburev/v30y2021i5s0969593121000561.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Negotiation beliefs: Comparing Americans and the Chinese

Author

Listed:
  • Zhang, Zhi-Xue
  • Liu, Leigh Anne
  • Ma, Li

Abstract

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhang, Zhi-Xue & Liu, Leigh Anne & Ma, Li, 2021. "Negotiation beliefs: Comparing Americans and the Chinese," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(5).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:iburev:v:30:y:2021:i:5:s0969593121000561
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ibusrev.2021.101849
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969593121000561
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ibusrev.2021.101849?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Liu, Leigh Anne & Friedman, Raymond A. & Chi, Shu-cheng, 2005. "‘Ren Qing†versus the ‘Big Five’ The Role of Culturally Sensitive Measures of Individual Difference in Distributive Negotiations," Management and Organization Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 1(2), pages 225-247, July.
    2. Ghauri, Pervez & Fang, Tony, 2001. "Negotiating with the Chinese: a socio-cultural analysis," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 303-325, October.
    3. Curhan, Jared R. & Neale, Margaret A. & Ross, Lee & Rosencranz-Engelmann, Jesse, 2008. "Relational accommodation in negotiation: Effects of egalitarianism and gender on economic efficiency and relational capital," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 107(2), pages 192-205, November.
    4. David K Tse & June Francis & Jan Walls, 1994. "Cultural Differences in Conducting Intra- and Inter-Cultural Negotiations: A Sino-Canadian Comparison," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 25(3), pages 537-555, September.
    5. Zhi-Xue Zhang & Yu-Lan Han, 2007. "The effects of reciprocation wariness on negotiation behavior and outcomes," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 16(6), pages 507-525, November.
    6. Li Ma & Aihua Chen & Zhi-Xue Zhang, 2016. "Task success based on contingency fit of managerial culture and embeddedness," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 47(2), pages 191-209, February.
    7. Peter J Buckley & Pervez N Ghauri, 2004. "Globalisation, economic geography and the strategy of multinational enterprises," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 35(3), pages 255-255, May.
    8. Ray Friedman & Shu-Cheng Chi & Leigh Anne Liu, 2006. "An expectancy model of Chinese–American differences in conflict-avoiding," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 37(1), pages 76-91, January.
    9. Sujin Lee & Wendi L. Adair & Seong-Jee Seo, 2013. "Cultural Perspective Taking in Cross-Cultural Negotiation," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 389-405, May.
    10. Tinsley, Catherine H. & Brett, Jeanne M., 2001. "Managing Workplace Conflict in the United States and Hong Kong," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 85(2), pages 360-381, July.
    11. Zhang, Jian-Dong & Liu, Leigh Anne & Liu, Wu, 2015. "Trust and Deception in Negotiation: Culturally Divergent Effects," Management and Organization Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 11(1), pages 123-144, March.
    12. Adler, Nancy J. & Graham, John L. & Gehrke, Theodore Schwarz, 1987. "Business negotiations in Canada, Mexico, and the United States," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 15(5), pages 411-429, October.
    13. Jeswald W. Salacuse, 1999. "Intercultural Negotiation in International Business," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 8(3), pages 217-236, May.
    14. John L Graham, 1985. "The Influence of Culture on the Process of Business Negotiations: An Exploratory Study," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 16(1), pages 81-96, March.
    15. Anderson, Cameron & Thompson, Leigh L., 2004. "Affect from the top down: How powerful individuals' positive affect shapes negotiations," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 95(2), pages 125-139, November.
    16. Kwok Leung & Michael W Morris, 2015. "Values, schemas, and norms in the culture–behavior nexus: A situated dynamics framework," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 46(9), pages 1028-1050, December.
    17. Roth,Alvin E. (ed.), 1988. "Laboratory Experimentation in Economics," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521333924.
    18. Ursula F Ott & Pervez N Ghauri, 2019. "Brexit negotiations: From negotiation space to agreement zones," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 50(1), pages 137-149, February.
    19. Gelfand, Michele J. & Christakopoulou, Sophia, 1999. "Culture and Negotiator Cognition: Judgment Accuracy and Negotiation Processes in Individualistic and Collectivistic Cultures, , , ," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 79(3), pages 248-269, September.
    20. Wendi L. Adair & Jeanne M. Brett, 2005. "The Negotiation Dance: Time, Culture, and Behavioral Sequences in Negotiation," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 16(1), pages 33-51, February.
    21. Graham, John L, 1988. "Buyer-Seller Negotiations around the Pacific Rim: Differences in Fundamental Exchange Processes," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 15(1), pages 48-54, June.
    22. Thompson, Leigh & Hastie, Reid, 1990. "Social perception in negotiation," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 98-123, October.
    23. Peter J Buckley & Pervez N Ghauri, 2004. "Globalisation, economic geography and the strategy of multinational enterprises," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 35(2), pages 81-98, March.
    24. Straub, Paul G. & Murnighan, J. Keith, 1995. "An experimental investigation of ultimatum games: information, fairness, expectations, and lowest acceptable offers," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 345-364, August.
    25. Catherine H Tinsley & Madan M Pillutla, 1998. "Negotiating in the United States and Hong Kong," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 29(4), pages 711-727, December.
    26. Kumar, Rajesh & Rangan, U. Srinivasa & Rufín, Carlos, 2005. "Negotiating complexity and legitimacy in independent power project development," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 302-320, August.
    27. Roth, Alvin E, 1988. "Laboratory Experimentation in Economics: A Methodological Overview," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 98(393), pages 974-1031, December.
    28. Ray Friedman & Shu-Cheng Chi & Leigh Anne Liu, 2006. "An expectancy model of Chinese-American differences in conflict-avoiding," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 37(4), pages 572-573, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Raphael Schoen, 2021. "Lacking pluralism? A critical review of the use of cultural dimensions in negotiation research," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 71(2), pages 393-432, April.
    2. Ahammad, Mohammad Faisal & Tarba, Shlomo Y. & Liu, Yipeng & Glaister, Keith W. & Cooper, Cary L., 2016. "Exploring the factors influencing the negotiation process in cross-border M&A," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 445-457.
    3. Junjun Cheng, 2020. "Bidirectional Relationship Progression in Buyer–Seller Negotiations: Evidence from South Korea," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 29(2), pages 293-320, April.
    4. Xiang Qian, 2021. "How Executives Manage Interpersonal Conflicts in Chinese Companies in Germany: Intercultural Difference in Conflict Management Styles," International Journal of Business and Management, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 15(4), pages 182-182, July.
    5. Donghee Han & Hyewon Park & Seung-Yoon Rhee, 2021. "The Role of Regulatory Focus and Emotion Recognition Bias in Cross-Cultural Negotiation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-20, March.
    6. Liu, Yipeng & Almor, Tamar, 2016. "How culture influences the way entrepreneurs deal with uncertainty in inter-organizational relationships: The case of returnee versus local entrepreneurs in China," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 4-14.
    7. Ott, Ursula F. & Prowse, Peter & Fells, Ray & Rogers, Helen, 2016. "The DNA of negotiations as a set theoretic concept: A theoretical and empirical analysis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(9), pages 3561-3571.
    8. Tuncel, Ece & Kong, Dejun Tony & McLean Parks, Judi & van Kleef, Gerben A., 2020. "Face threat sensitivity in distributive negotiations: Effects on negotiator self-esteem and demands," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 255-273.
    9. Kern, Mary C. & Brett, Jeanne M. & Weingart, Laurie R. & Eck, Chase S., 2020. "The “fixed” pie perception and strategy in dyadic versus multiparty negotiations," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 143-158.
    10. John F. McCarthy & Carl A. Scheraga & Donald E. Gibson, 2010. "Culture, Cognition and Conflict: How Neuroscience Can Help to Explain Cultural Differences in Negotiation and Conflict Management," Chapters, in: Angela A. Stanton & Mellani Day & Isabell M. Welpe (ed.), Neuroeconomics and the Firm, chapter 14, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    11. Stanford A Westjohn & Peter Magnusson & Yi Peng & Hyeyoon Jung, 2021. "Acting on anger: Cultural value moderators of the effects of consumer animosity," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 52(8), pages 1591-1615, October.
    12. Fainshmidt, Stav & White, George O. & Cangioni, Carole, 2014. "Legal Distance, Cognitive Distance, and Conflict Resolution in International Business Intellectual Property Disputes," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 188-200.
    13. Caputo, Andrea & Ayoko, Oluremi B. & Amoo, Nii & Menke, Charlott, 2019. "The relationship between cultural values, cultural intelligence and negotiation styles," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 23-36.
    14. Marina Dabić & Jane Maley & Leo-Paul Dana & Ivan Novak & Massimiliano M. Pellegrini & Andrea Caputo, 2020. "Pathways of SME internationalization: a bibliometric and systematic review," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 55(3), pages 705-725, October.
    15. Epede, Mesumbe Bianca & Wang, Daoping, 2022. "Global value chain linkages: An integrative review of the opportunities and challenges for SMEs in developing countries," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(5).
    16. Little, Cedric & Felzensztein, Christian & Gimmon, Eli & Muñoz, Pablo, 2015. "The business management of the Chilean salmon farming industry," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 108-117.
    17. Noah Gans & George Knox & Rachel Croson, 2007. "Simple Models of Discrete Choice and Their Performance in Bandit Experiments," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 9(4), pages 383-408, December.
    18. Buckley, Peter J. & Cross, Adam & De Mattos, Claudio, 2015. "The principle of congruity in the analysis of international business cooperation," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 24(6), pages 1048-1060.
    19. Cantner, Uwe & Günther, Jutta & Hassan, Sohaib Shahzad & Jindra, Björn, 2013. "Outward FDI from the Central and Eastern European Transition Economies – A Discrete Choice Analysis of Location Choice within the European Union," MPRA Paper 51817, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 04 Jun 2013.
    20. Conti, Claudio Ramos & Parente, Ronaldo & de Vasconcelos, Flávio C., 2016. "When distance does not matter: Implications for Latin American multinationals," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(6), pages 1980-1992.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:iburev:v:30:y:2021:i:5:s0969593121000561. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/133/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.