INSPIRE is a Web-based system for the support and conduct of negotiation. The primary uses of the system are training and research. Between July 1996 and April 1997, 281 bilateral negotiations were conducted through the system by managers, engineers and students from over 50 countries. INSPIRE has been used at eight universities and training centers. In research it is being used to study cross-cultural differences in decision making and the use of computer support in negotiation. This paper outlines the system, the negotiation methodology embedded in it, and reports the initial results of the experimental study of the impact of culture on Web-based bilateral negotiation. Keywords: negotiation, international negotiation, cross-cultural study, Internet, World Wide Web, decision support, negotiation support, preferences. Acknowledgments The authors gratefully acknowledge the contribution of each member of the InterNeg team and, in particular, they want to thank John Bowen, Ying-Hueih C...

Internet technologies are increasingly used in various forms of communication, including negotiations. This paper explores the cultural implications in anonymous inter- and intra-cultural electronic negotiations. The negotiations were conducted via Inspire, a Web-based negotiation support system, and involved 166 subjects from

On behalf of:

Four studies support the development and validation of a framework for understanding the range of social psychological outcomes valued subjectively as consequences of negotiations. Study 1 inductively elicited and coded elements of subjective value among students, community members, and practitioners, revealing 20 categories that theorists in Study 2 sorted into 4 underlying subconstructs: Feelings About the Instrumental Outcome, Feelings About the Self, Feelings About the Negotiation Process, and Feelings About the Relationship. Study 3 proposed a new Subjective Value Inventory (SVI) and confirmed its 4-factor structure. Study 4 presents convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity data for the SVI. Indeed, subjective value was a better predictor than economic outcomes of future negotiation decisions. Results suggest the SVI is a promising tool to systematize and encourage research on subjective outcomes of negotiation.

Abstract: In a competitive and morally imperfect world, business people are often faced with serious ethical challenges. Harboring suspicions about the ethics of others, many feel justified in engaging in less-than-ideal conduct to protect their own interests. The most sophisticated moral arguments are unlikely to counteract this behavior. We believe that this morally defensive behavior is responsible, in large part, for much undesirable deception in negotiation. Drawing on recent work in the literature of negotiations, we present some practical guidance on how negotiators might build trust, establish common interests, and secure credibility for their statements thereby promoting honesty. We also point out the types of social and institutional arrangements, many of which have become commonplace, that work to promote credibility, trust, and honesty in business dealings. Our approach is offered not only as a specific response to the problem of deception in negotiation, but as one model of how research in business ethics might offer constructive advice to practitioners. …there is such a gap between how one lives and how one ought to live that anyone who abandons what is done for what ought to be done learns his ruin rather than his preservation…

Recently, there has been increasing interest in the application of information processing technologies such as GSS to the field of negotiations. This paper explores the theoretical and practical integration of principled negotiation, the ESD framework, and the MeetingWorks GSS in supporting negotiation processes. Recent developments in nego-tiation theory and practice have identified “principled negotiation” as an improved way of resolving disputes. Evolutionary Systems Design (ESD) is a widely-used formal modeling framework for task-oriented group processes including group decision making, planning, policy making, and ne-gotiation. MeetingWorks is a comprehensive group support system (GSS) that provides a variety of tools to assist task-oriented groups.

Experimental research on cross-cultural negotiations typically involves subjects negotiating in a classroom or laboratory setting. Such negotiations are brief, with a strictly imposed deadline and face-to-face. Further, the negotiations typically involve dyads from the same country. The comparisons are done on the basis of experiments replicated in several countries. Internet technologies allow for communication across the cultural frontiers. While the communication is not as rich as in the case of face-toface discussions, it allows subjects to negotiate in an asynchronous mode and at their own pace. It is also possible to conduct anonymous negotiations for several weeks. This paper explores the implications of culture on anonymous negotiations conducted via the Web with the use of INSPIRE, a Web-based negotiation support system. The negotiations involved 166 subjects from Austria, Ecuador, Finland, and Switzerland. A model to study cross-cultural negotiations is proposed and assessed ...

Successful negotiations between retail buyers and manufacturer repre-sentatives are an important ingredient in retailer success. Women are well-represented in retail industries, raising the question of how gender affects buyer-seller negotiations. In an investigation of this, question, more than 100 businesspeople participated in a buyer-seller negotiation simulation. All participants completed a questionnaire and 29 negotiations were tupe recorded. Gender differences were discov-ered in both negotiation performance and behavior. For example, men achieved higher individual profits. Men were also found to use more questions, self-disclosures, conversational repairs, interruptions, and first person, plural pronouns (''we"). The linguistic and practical sa-lience of the discovered dzfferences is discussed. More than half of the retail buyers for general merchandise stores are women. For apparel and accessories, the great majority of retail buyers are female. Conversely, manufacturers ' sales representatives are predomi-nantly male. For example, salesmen of apparel and accessories outnumber saleswomen by over three to one (U. S. Department of Commerce, 1984). To be an effective retail buyer, it is important to know how to negotiate with salespeople to obtain the most favorable terms of sale possible. Dif-ferences have been found between men and women in the ways they com-municate and negotiate; thus, the potential exists for misunderstandings and less-than-ideal purchase agreements when the female buyer negotiates with the male salesperson. Moreover, retailers should understand how men and women communicate and negotiate in order to train their em-ployees to be more effective buyers.

data analyzed in Study 3 are derived from a larger longitudinal study reported in Montes and Irving (2008). We would like to thank Greg Irving for his valuable contributions in the role of doctoral dissertation advisor to Samantha Montes, Lisa Lambert and Jeff Edwards for their guidance with our analyses in Study 3, and the Co-operative Education Program at the University of Waterloo for their assistance in conducting Study 3. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Samantha D. Montes,

The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNESCO concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The authors are responsible for the choice and the presentation of the facts contained in this book and for the opinions expressed therein, which are not necessarily those of UNESCO and do not commit the Organization. ACKNOWLEDGMENT This article is a contribution from UNESCO’s International Hydrological Programme to the World Water Assessment Programme. It was prepared within the framework of the joint UNESCO–Green Cross International project entitled “From Potential Conflict to Co-operation Potential (PCCP): Water for Peace, ” and was made possible by the