Better The Devil You Know: Competition in Intra and Intercultural Negotiations

Negotiation literature shows that intercultural negotiations result in lower joint gains compared to intracultural (Brett, 2014). Researchers have suggested at least three different explanations for this effect: differences in strategy, poor communication quality and a higher level of competition in inter than in intracultural. We test the assumption that intercultural negotiations are more competitive than intracultural. We argue that intracultural negotiations can also be competitive and intercultural negotiations can be cooperative. Our results show that intracultural negotiations can be more competitive than intercultural and that strategy is responsible for the sub-optimal outcomes obtained in intercultural. We discuss implications for global negotiators as well as future directions.