Article

The Future of Business Negotiations – Current Trends and New Perspectives on Negotiation Behavior

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Abstract

Megatrends, affecting multiple aspects of future society, economy, and technology, drive today's business world. They are expected to impact all areas in companies and will, therefore, most likely occur in business negotiations. Although several studies address future developments of different business divisions, the megatrends' impact on negotiations has, thus far, not been analyzed. We designed a model including the three megatrends, i.e., globalization and economic shift, digitalization and new technologies, and demographic and social change, which have main effects on specific negotiation aspects. Our study combined an online survey and expert interviews with negotiation practitioners to provide a first broad view of how megatrends affect future business negotiations. The results confirm our model and reveal a close connection of megatrends and single negotiation aspects. Among others, we examine an orientation toward global partners, an increased interconnection through various electronic systems, as well as two opposite relationship directions - long-term and integrative through strategic cooperation vs. short-term and distributive through competition and new technologies.

Keywords: business negotiation, negotiation trends, digitalization in negotiations, survey

How to Cite:

Oehlschläger, P., Haggenmüller, S., Herbst, U. & Voeth, M., (2022) “The Future of Business Negotiations – Current Trends and New Perspectives on Negotiation Behavior”, Negotiation and Conflict Management Research 16(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.34891/2022.0496