IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/jintbs/v37y2006i5p623-641.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Tension and trust in international business negotiations: American executives negotiating with Chinese executives

Author

Listed:
  • Kam-hon Lee

    (Faculty of Business Administration, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong SAR, China)

  • Guang Yang

    (Faculty of Marketing, Bryant University, Smithfield, RI, USA)

  • John L Graham

    (Paul Merage School of Business, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA)

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.8400215

Suggested Citation

  • Kam-hon Lee & Guang Yang & John L Graham, 2006. "Tension and trust in international business negotiations: American executives negotiating with Chinese executives," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 37(5), pages 623-641, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:pal:jintbs:v:37:y:2006:i:5:p:623-641
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/jibs/journal/v37/n5/pdf/8400215a.pdf
    File Function: Link to full text PDF
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/jibs/journal/v37/n5/full/8400215a.html
    File Function: Link to full text HTML
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

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

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Vahtera, Pekka & Buckley, Peter & Aliyev, Murod, 2017. "Affective conflict and identification of knowledge sources in MNE teams," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(5), pages 881-895.
    2. C. O. Iroham & M. E. Emetere & H. I. Okagbue & O. Ogunkoya & O. D. Durodola & N. J. Peter & O. M. Akinwale, 2019. "Modified Pricing Model for Negotiation of Mortgage Valuation Between Estate Surveyors and Valuers and Their Clients," Global Journal of Flexible Systems Management, Springer;Global Institute of Flexible Systems Management, vol. 20(4), pages 337-347, December.
    3. Lau, Victor P. & Dimitrova, Mihaela N. & Shaffer, Margaret A. & Davidkov, Tzvetan & Yordanova, Desislava I., 2012. "Entrepreneurial Readiness and Firm Growth: An Integrated Etic and Emic Approach," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 147-159.
    4. Ayeh, Julian K. & Au, Norman & Law, Rob, 2013. "Predicting the intention to use consumer-generated media for travel planning," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 132-143.
    5. Tony W. Tong & Jeffrey J. Reuer & Beverly B. Tyler & Shujun Zhang, 2015. "Host country executives' assessments of international joint ventures and divestitures: An experimental approach," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(2), pages 254-275, February.
    6. 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.
    7. Leonidas C. Leonidou & Bilge Aykol & Jorma Larimo & Lida Kyrgidou & Paul Christodoulides, 2021. "Enhancing International Buyer-Seller Relationship Quality and Long-Term Orientation Using Emotional Intelligence: The Moderating Role of Foreign Culture," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 61(3), pages 365-402, June.
    8. 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.
    9. 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.
    10. Harri T. Luomala & Rajesh Kumar & J. D. Singh & Matti Jaakkola, 2015. "When an Intercultural Business Negotiation Fails: Comparing the Emotions and Behavioural Tendencies of Individualistic and Collectivistic Negotiators," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 537-561, May.
    11. Pia Hurmelinna-Laukkanen & Kwadwo Atta-Owusu & Eeva-Liisa Oikarinen, 2016. "You Are Joking, Right? — Connecting Humour Types To Innovative Behaviour And Innovation Output," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 20(08), pages 1-22, December.
    12. Richardson, Christopher & Rammal, Hussain Gulzar, 2018. "Religious belief and international business negotiations: Does faith influence negotiator behaviour?," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 401-409.
    13. Clampit, Jack & Gaffney, Nolan & Fabian, Frances & Stafford, Thomas, 2023. "Institutional misalignment and escape-based FDI: A prospect theory lens," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(3).
    14. Caleb H. Tse & Klaus E. Meyer & Yigang Pan & Tailan Chi, 2024. "Evolution of MNE strategies amid China’s changing institutions: a thematic review," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 55(6), pages 657-675, August.
    15. Kumju Hwang & Hyewon Kim, 2018. "Are Ethical Consumers Happy? Effects of Ethical Consumers' Motivations Based on Empathy Versus Self-orientation on Their Happiness," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 151(2), pages 579-598, August.
    16. Anthony M. Gould & Jean‐Etienne Joullié & Kate Gould, 2024. "First things first: Unselfconscious corporate virtuosity and corporate performance," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(2), pages 692-706, February.
    17. Gaur, Ajai & Kumar, Mukesh, 2018. "A systematic approach to conducting review studies: An assessment of content analysis in 25years of IB research," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 53(2), pages 280-289.
    18. Chan, Sow Hup & Ng, Tsz Shing, 2016. "Ethical negotiation values of Chinese negotiators," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(2), pages 823-830.
    19. Jitka Odehnalová, 2009. "The Nature of Chinese Business Negotiation Behaviour: A Battlefield or a Gentlemen's Club? [Povaha čínského obchodního jednání: Na válečném poli či mezi gentlemany]," Acta Oeconomica Pragensia, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2009(6), pages 52-62.
    20. Fregidou-Malama, Maria & Hyder, Akmal S., 2021. "Multilevel trust in international marketing of healthcare services: A five-country comparative study," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(6).
    21. Roger Volkema & Ilias Kapoutsis & Ana Bon & José Ricardo Almeida, 2016. "The Influence of Power and Individualism-Collectivism on Negotiation Initiation," RAC - Revista de Administração Contemporânea (Journal of Contemporary Administration), ANPAD - Associação Nacional de Pós-Graduação e Pesquisa em Administração, vol. 20(6), pages 673-692.
    22. 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.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:pal:jintbs:v:37:y:2006:i:5:p:623-641. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/ .

    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.