Economic Capital and Social Capital in Integrative Negotiations

Keywords: Negotiations, social-capital outcomes, economic outcomes, mental accounting, negotiator behavior

Abstract: To date, prior research has largely focused on economic outcomes in negotiations with less attention paid to social-capital outcomes. In this paper, we develop, from a contextual perspective, a conceptual model that highlights the duality of negotiation outcomes by identifying the determinants of both economic and social-capital outcomes. Building on the theoretical foundations of mental accounting in consumer and decision-making research, and on a recently introduced mental-accounting model of negotiation, we suggest that negotiators open up two different mental accounts to evaluate the economic vs. social-capital outcomes. Specifically, we propose that negotiators’ focus on the two mental accounts is a contextually determined psychological process that underlies behavior and outcomes (i.e., economic and social-capital) in negotiations. To conclude, directions for future research for testing the model are discussed.