IU/UI-Analysis in Negotiations: Preference Differences as a Mean to Enhance Negotiation Performance in Unbalanced Power Conditions – An Experimental Study

It has been proven that structuring issues and organizing the agenda before the negotiation leads to improved negotiation performance. By using issue analysis, negotiators become aware of their own and the opponent´s preferences for the negotiation issues, which will then determine their negotiation behavior. A relatively new approach would be the identification of one-sided preferences, specifically a 0-preference, for one party. We think this implies strategic potential as 0-preferences might yield either a chance (unimportant for own side, important for the opposite side) or risk (important for own side, unimportant for the opposite side) for the negotiator. Furthermore, we suppose the occurrence of 0-preferences could be particularly relevant for a low power party in negotiations with power imbalance, since it might function as leverage to overcome a weak negotiating position. In order to gain insight, we designed a case study in which students took part in a simulated online negotiation.