The impact of media on how positive, negative, and neutral communicated affect influence unilateral concessions during negotiations

Abstract

In the online environment, audio and instant messaging (IM) media are quite commonly used by people to communicate with each other and make offers as they negotiate. While we know much about how IM and audio differ, we know very little about how offers that are favorable to the recipient (termed unilateral concessions) are affected by what and how people communicate over these media. The purpose of this study is twofold – (1) to examine how such concessions are influenced by communication that is either neutral, or positive, or negative in affect; and (2) to determine how the use of IM, relative to the use of audio, influences the effects of these types of communication on unilateral concessions. We develop a research model based on prosocial theory, which suggests that negotiators using audio are predisposed to interpret their partners’ motivations and behaviors in a positive (prosocial) light while negotiators using IM are predisposed to interpret their partners’ motivations and behaviors in a negative (competitive) light. We manipulate the use of IM and audio in anexperiment designed to test predictions based on this theory. Our work provides theoretical and empirical support for the idea that communications other than concessions (such as positive, neutral, and negative affect) can lead to more or less self-sacrifice depending on the medium employed, and thereby motivate negotiators to make greater or fewer unilateral concessions. Specifically, we found that (1) positive affect comments can increase unilateral concession independent of the medium used by negotiators; (2) neutral affect comments can increase unilateral concession when negotiators use audio, but have little impact when they use IM; and (3) negative affect comments can decrease unilateral concession when negotiators use audio, but can increase unilateral concession when they use IM. These results provide insights to researchers and practical guidance for negotiators.

Keywords:

• unilateral concessions
• IM
• audio
• affect
• negotiation

Associate Editors:

Prof. Frantz Rowe and Dr. Daphne Ruth Raban

Associate Editors:

Prof. Frantz Rowe and Dr. Daphne Ruth Raban

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Norman A Johnson

About the authors

Norman A. Johnson is an Associate Professor in the Decision and Information Sciences Department in the Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston. He holds a M.B.A degree in Finance from Baruch College, a M.Phil., and a Ph.D. in Business from the City University of New York. One area of his research focuses on media and negotiation. His published research studies are in journals such as MIS Quarterly, Journal of Management Information Systems, Information Systems Journal, European Journal of Information Systems, Decision Support Systems among others.

Randolph B Cooper

Randolph B. Cooper is a Professor in the Decision and Information Sciences Department in the Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston. He received his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate degrees from the University of California at Los Angeles. He has published in a variety of academic journals, including DataBase, European Journal of Information Systems, Journal of Management Information Systems, Management Science, MIS Quarterly, and Omega. His current research interests include examining the influence of different media on negotiating dyads.

Richard D Holowczak

Richard D. Holowczak is an Associate Professor of Computer Information Systems and the Director of the Subotnick Financial Services Center at Baruch College, CUNY. He received a doctorate degree, as well as a M.B.A from Rutgers University. He also received a M.Sc. degree from New Jersey Institute of Technology. His research interests lie at the intersection of Finance and Information Systems and include markets of all kinds, financial technologies and systems that support negotiation. He has published in a variety of Finance and IS journals, such as The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Journal of Derivatives, Decision Support Systems, and Communications of the ACM.