Assess, don't assume
Subtitle: Negotiating implications of cross-border differences in decision making, governance, and political economy
By: James K. Sebenius
Contributors: Harvard Business School
Series: Working paper / Harvard Business School -- 10-050; Working paper (Harvard Business School) -- 10-050.
Publisher: Harvard Business School
Published: 2009
Place of publication: [Boston]
Language: eng
Number of pages: 11
Description: When facing a negotiation that crosses national borders and/or cultures, the standard preparatory assessments-of the parties, their interests, their no-deal options, opportunities for and barriers to creating and claiming value, the most promising sequence and process design, etc.- should be informed and modified by potentially relevant factors. Drawing on considerable literature in cross-border and cross-cultural negotiation, a two-paper series develops a four-level prescriptive framework for effectively carrying out such assessments. The first paper in this series ("Etiquette and National Culture in Negotiation") described 1) common expectations for surface behavior, and 2) some implications of deeper cultural characteristics for the negotiation process itself, as well as cross-border caveats such as stereotyping and overemphasizing national culture to the exclusion of other factors. The current paper carries this analysis further by systematically analyzing a third and fourth class of factors that often prove critical in cross-border dealmaking: 3. The decision-making and governance processes that are the targets of influence efforts, and 4. The broader economic and political context for negotiation as well as salient "comparable" deals.
Notes: "December 2009"--Publisher's website.

Includes bibliographical references.