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A Study on Bargaining Power and Learning in Seller-Buyer Bilateral Negotiations

Bang, Seokbeom

Published: January 1992 · Vol. 22, No. 1 · pp. 267-296
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Abstract

This study aimed to provide a more comprehensive perspective on the negotiation process by combining two representative approaches to the negotiation process in behavioral science: the view of negotiation as a process of tactical action between negotiators and the view of negotiation as a process of learning by negotiators. This combined approach described negotiation as a learning process in which two negotiators come to understand each other's relative bargaining power through the exchange of tactical actions. Five hypotheses were derived from the combined negotiation model and were tested by applying them to a negotiation situation in which a seller and a buyer determine the selling price. The test results showed that negotiators with stronger bargaining power tended to make fewer concessions and to select more forceful tactical actions, and that such coercive tactical actions more effectively facilitated learning about the counterpart's bargaining power.