Abstract
The tension that negotiators face between claiming and creating value is particularly apparent when exchanging offers. We tested whether presenting a choice among first offers (Multiple Equivalent Simultaneous Offers; MESOs) reduces this negotiator dilemma and increases economic and relational outcomes. Six experiments comparing MESOs to a single package-offer revealed three effects. First, MESOs produced stronger anchors and better outcomes for the offerer because recipients perceived MESOs as a more sincere attempt at reaching an agreement (agreement sincerity). Second, MESOs yielded greater joint outcomes because they were probabilistically more likely to include an economically attractive starting point for recipients (initial recipient-value). Third, MESOs allowed the offerer to secure a cooperative reputation and created a more cooperative negotiation climate. Negotiators who offered MESOs were able to claim and create more economic and relational value. MESOs reduced the negotiator dilemma for offerers by also reducing it for recipients. Weblinks in the appendix give access to supplementary materials, analyses, and data.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 64-83 |
| Number of pages | 20 |
| Journal | Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes |
| Volume | 152 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - May 2019 |
Funding
This research was funded by the first author\u2019s SSHRC grant ( 435-2015-0667 ). Thanks to Nicole Ouellette, Hiten Samtani, Patrick Human, Paul Xing, Anthony Xu, Jane Yao, Maggie Xu, Yiyi Luan, Todd Li, Yan Yan, and Cecilia Ma of the Self and Identity Lab (SAIL) for their research assistance, to the Dispute Resolution Research Center for travel money, and to Keith Murnighan, Claire Tsai, and Glen Whyte for commenting on previous drafts. GJL led theory-development with all authors contributing. Different authors contributed to study design: 1 (GJL, JG, GM), 2 (JG), 3 (GJL, JG), 4 (GJL, JG), 5 (GJL, GM), 6 (GJL, ADG, VHM). Different authors performed data collection and analysis: 1 (JG, GJL, GM), 2 (JG, GJL), 3 (JG, GJL), 4 (GJL, GJ, GM), 5 (GJL, GM, JG), and 6 (GJL, JG, ADG, VHM). GM created random offer generator, JG created the agreement sincerity measure. Analysis interpretation was led by GJL and JG, with assistance from ADG, except 5 (GM led). GJL drafted the paper; all authors made revisions resulting in the submitted paper.
Keywords
- Topics: negotiation
- agreement sincerity
- anchoring
- choice
- first offers
- initial recipient-value
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Applied Psychology
- Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management