Tension and trust in international business negotiations: American executives negotiating with Chinese executives
Abstract
The purpose of the study is to shed light on the antecedents and consequences of tension felt during international business negotiations. A total of 176 American and Chinese executives participated in simulated international business (buyer–seller) negotiations. The negotiations were videotaped, and the participants completed questionnaires. Each participant was also asked to review his/her videotaped negotiation, rate the tension felt on a videotape review form, and briefly describe the antecedents of the tension felt. The data collected were then analyzed using first a structural equations approach and then a more exploratory content analysis. Both Chinese and American executives felt tension during the negotiations. For the Chinese, greater levels of tension led to an increased likelihood of agreement, but also led to lower levels of interpersonal attraction and in turn lower trust for their American counterparts. For the Americans, tension felt decreased marginally the likelihood of an agreement, did not affect interpersonal attraction, but did have a direct negative effect on trust. A series of other cultural differences are also reported. The measure of tension felt developed in the study appears to be useful methodologically, theoretically, and practically. Journal of International Business Studies (2006) 37, 623–641. doi:10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8400215Download Info
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version under "Related research" (further below) or search for a different version of it.
Bibliographic Info
Article provided by Palgrave Macmillan in its journal Journal of International Business Studies.
Volume (Year): 37 (2006)
Issue (Month): 5 (September)
Pages: 623-641
Contact details of provider:
Web page: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/
Order Information:
Postal: Palgrave Macmillan Journals, Subscription Department, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, UK
Email:
Web: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/pal/subscribe/index.html
Related research
Keywords:References
No references listed on IDEASYou can help add them by filling out this form.
Citations
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- Jitka Odehnalová, 2009. "The Nature of Chinese Business Negotiation Behaviour: A Battlefield or a Gentlemen's Club?," Acta Oeconomica Pragensia, University of Economics, Prague, vol. 2009(6), pages 52-62.
- Lumineau, Fabrice & Henderson, James, 2012. "The influence of relational experience and contractual governance on the negotiation strategy in buyer-supplier disputes," MPRA Paper 38510, University Library of Munich, Germany.
Lists
This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.Statistics
Access and download statisticsCorrections
When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:jintbs:v:37:y:2006:i:5:p:623-641For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Elizabeth Gale).
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 references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.
If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link 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 profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.
Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

