Intrapsychic Process Model of Serial Negotiations: The Influence of Past, Present, and Future Alternatives

We develop a theoretical model of the intrapsychic processes that occur in serial negotiations, which refer to repeated negotiations over time. Building on theories of regulatory focus and counterfactual reasoning, our model explains how the contextual effects of past negotiations affect anticipated future negotiations to influence a negotiator's demands, persistence, and success in a current negotiation. Counterfactual thinking is used to explain why negotiators who make an internal attribution for a past impasse will persist with a promotion regulatory focus in subsequent negotiations. Counterfactual thinking may also lead to imagining better future alternatives and thus motivate persistence in the current negotiation. In contrast, those who make an external attribution for a past impasse will have a prevention focus, leading to increased concession-making.