Governance: Managing Bilateral Relations

This chapter provides an overview of the new governance framework for EU-UK cooperation, exploring the mechanisms established by the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) in managing bilateral relations. It examines the complex institutional machinery created by the TCA, including the Partnership Council, a dispute resolution system, and dozens of committees and sub-committees. As a consequence of the thin material scope of the TCA, its institutional mechanism will become the framework for continuing future negotiation between the parties. The chapter warns that the ongoing mistrust between the partners to the bilateral relation does not bode well for cooperation ahead, as a degree of trust is a necessary precondition for any efficient governance scheme.

A Study of Integrative Bargaining Model with Argumentation-Based Negotiation

E-commerce is increasingly competitive and there is a constant need for new approaches and technology to facilitate exchange. Emerging techniques include the use of artificial intelligence (AI). One AI tool that has sparked interest in e-commerce is the automated negotiation agent (negotiation-agent). This study examines such agents, and proposes an offer strategy model of integrative negotiation for a negotiation-agent with a focus on negotiation agent-to-human interaction. More specifically, a new offer strategy was developed based on the integrative bargaining model, which emphasizes the importance of exchanging information among negotiators and multi-issue negotiation that includes package offers to achieve an integrative (win-win) outcome. This study incorporated an argumentation-based negotiation and the negotiation tactic of multiple equivalent simultaneous offers, which was programmed into the negotiation-agent. An experiment was conducted performing 49 negotiation-agent-to-human negotiations over three issues in online purchase tasks to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed strategy. Experimental results indicated that the proposed offer strategy with agent negotiation can enhance the persuasiveness of an offer and the performance of negotiation outcome (human counterpart’s perception toward negotiation process, opponent–agent and desire for future negotiation). The findings confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed design and demonstrated an innovative approach to e-commerce transactions.

Adaptation and Health: Are Countries with More Climate-sensitive Health Sectors More Likely to Receive Adaptation Aid?

Climate change poses a severe challenge for many developing countries, and the need to adapt has been widely recognized. Public health is one of the sectors where adaptation is necessary, as a warming climate likely affects general health conditions, the spread of various diseases, etc. Some countries are more affected by such climatic challenges, as their climate sensitivity—both to health-related issues and to climate change in general—is higher. This study examines whether more climate-sensitive countries are more likely to receive support from donors through the relatively new channel of adaptation aid, with a particular focus on the health sector. To investigate this relationship, this study proposes and operationalizes a new indicator to capture climate sensitivity of countries’ health sectors. The results, however, indicate that climate sensitivity does not matter for adaptation aid allocation. Instead, adaptation aid to a large degree follows development aid. In light of the promises repeatedly made by donors in the climate negotiations that adaptation aid should go to the most vulnerable, developing countries should push for a different allocation mechanism of adaptation aid in future negotiation rounds.

Reelection and Renegotiation: International Agreements in the Shadow of the Polls

We study dynamic international agreements when one of the negotiating parties faces a threat of electoral replacement during negotiations, when agreements made before the election are the starting point for any subsequent renegotiation, and when governments cannot commit to future negotiation strategies. Conflicts of interest between governments may be softened or intensified by the governments’ conflicts of interest with voters. We characterize when the threat of electoral turnover strengthens the prospect for successful negotiations, when it may cause negotiations to fail, and how it affects the division of the surplus from cooperation. We also show how changes in domestic politics—including uncertainty about the preferences of domestic political parties—affect a domestic government’s ability to extract greater concessions in negotiations.

Strong or Weak Synergy? Revising the Assumption of Team-Related Advantages in Integrative Negotiations

When negotiations are complex and consequential, organizations usually send teams rather than individuals to the negotiation table because teams are expected to provide additional beneficial negotiation processes and, thus, generate superior outcomes. Similarly, theoretical accounts of integrative negotiations assume higher outcomes for teams than for individual negotiators as a consequence of team-related advantages (e.g., increased information processing and problem-solving capabilities). In this study, we challenge this established assumption and across three negotiations and various empirical tests, we show that the advantages of teams are merely the result of individual-level processes (i.e., one person asking interest-related questions). Moreover, Bayesian estimation supported our claim and rejected the extant account: The probability of the teams achieving better outcomes than the best individuals in commensurate nominal groups (i.e., strong synergy) was up to four times smaller than the probability of the teams not achieving better results than the best individuals in commensurate nominal groups. Finally, in the majority of our analyses, individual negotiators generated better relationship outcomes than teams even though the economic outcomes were comparable. On the basis of these results, we revise the assumption of team-related advantages in integrative negotiations. We discuss the implications of our results for future negotiation research and for the practical assignment of teams or individuals to negotiations.

Relationality in negotiations: a systematic review and propositions for future research

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to systematically review and analyze the important, yet under-researched, topic of relationality in negotiations and propose new directions for future negotiation research. Design/methodology/approach This paper conducts a systematic review of negotiation literature related to relationality from multiple disciplines. Thirty-nine leading and topical academic journals are selected and 574 papers on negotiation are reviewed from 1990 to 2014. Based on the systematic review, propositions regarding the rationales for relationality in negotiations are developed and future research avenues in this area are discussed. Findings Of 574 papers on negotiations published in 39 peer-reviewed journals between 1990 and 2014, only 18 papers have studied and discussed relationality in negotiations. This suggests that relationality as a theoretical theme has long been under-researched in negotiation research. For future research, this paper proposes to incorporate the dynamic, cultural and mechanism perspectives, and to use a qualitative approach to study relationality in negotiations. Originality/value This paper presents the first systematic review of the negotiation literature on relationality, and identifies new research topics on relationality in negotiations. In so doing, this research opens new avenues for future negotiation research on relationality.