Cross-cultural comparison of the processes and outcomes of buyer-seller negotiations through instant messaging: Hong Kong Chinese vs. Americans

This paper examined culture’s effect on the processes and outcomes of buyer-seller negotiations conducted through instant messaging (IM). The effects were examined by comparing Hong Kong (H.K.) Chinese intra-cultural negotiations with U.S. intra-cultural negotiations. The high-low context of culture (Hall 1976) and ingroup/outgroup bias of the cultures were found to influence negotiation behaviors and outcomes in the IM condition. The IM condition was considered a low context communication medium relative to face-to-face. Results show that negotiators from high context culture (H.K.), who may consider negotiating partners as outgroup members, used more distributive tactics, needed significantly longer time, and achieved lower Pareto efficiency and less joint satisfaction than negotiators from low context culture (U.S.) who do not distinguish strongly ingroup vs outgroup members. Negotiation tactics were found to mediate the effect of culture on Pareto efficiency. These results suggest that culture influences outcomes variables through processes variables for negotiations conducted through a low context medium.