Cross-Cultural Interactions

Research methods

How the Study Was Conducted

Negotiation simulation

The simulation, developed by Kelley and used by Pruitt, and Clopton, involves negotiating for the prices of three commodities. Each bargainer receives an instruction sheet, including a price list with associated profits for each price level. Participants were given fifteen minutes to read the instructions and plan their bargaining strategies, and up to one hour to negotiate. The simulation has both competitive and cooperative characteristics; that is, negotiators can attempt to maximize individual or joint profits. While simple enough to learn quickly, the simulation usually provides enough complexity for substantive interaction. Of the other negotiation simulations considered, Kelley's appeared to simulate best the essential elements of actual commercial negotiations as observed in preliminary research. Please see Appendices 3A and 3B for more details.

Following the bargaining session, participants completed a questionnaire. To assure equivalence, the French and Japanese translations of both the simulation instructions and the questionnaire were backtranslated into English by second translators; the original and backtranslated English versions were compared and discrepancies resolved. While participants conducted within-culture negotiations in their native language (English, Japanese, or French), the language of intercultural negotiations was chosen by the pair negotiating.

Since this study sought and measured negotiators' "natural" behaviors, the methods described above depart significantly from traditional experimental manipulations and associated checks. This departure not only allows for a claim to greater external validity than the traditional design, but more important, allows both negotiators to adapt their behavior during the interaction. The present approach has proven useful in simulating actual negotiator behavior. 

Participants

One-hundred-ninety American, 72 Japanese, 100 Canadian Francophones, and 100 Canadian Anglophones participated in the negotiation simulation. Since students and businesspeople bargain differently, the sample was limited to experienced businesspeople. All had at least two years of business experience in their respective countries and were volunteers from executive education or graduate business programs. Their average work experience was 9.3 years and the average percent of inter-organizational contact was 48.1. See Table 3.1 for more detail regarding each group. Participants were randomly paired and randomly assigned to play the role of the buyer or seller with either a same culture partner (80 American/American pairs, 21 Japanese/Japanese pairs, 37 Anglophone/Anglophone pairs and 37 Francophone/Francophone pairs) or different culture partners (30 Japanese/American pairs and 26 Anglophone/Francophone pairs). 

Mean age, years of work experience, and percentage of work involving contact outside the company, with standard deviations in parentheses, for the four participant groups: the United States, Japan, and Canada (split into Francophone and Anglophone samples).

Data collection instruments

Three process-related measures have been included in the analyses. Each negotiation was timed. Cooperativeness (PSA) and interpersonal attraction were measured using 5and 3-item scales respectively. These are included in Appendix 3C. 

The study considered three negotiation outcomes individual profits, joint profits, and satisfaction. Profits are derived directly from the negotiated agreement. Satisfaction with the negotiation was measured using a 4-item scale on the post-simulation questionnaire. See Table 3.2 and Appendix 3C for a detailed explanation. 

The Japanese negotiatiors participating in intra-cultural interactions completed a shorter questionnaire. Thus, only a 3-item measure of cooperativeness and a 1-item measure of satisfaction were used for that group. More detail is provided in Table 3.2 and Appendix 3C.