Beyond Face Value: Developing the Subjective Value Inventory for Chinese Negotiators

Abstract: While the Subjective Value Inventory (SVI) has improved our understanding of and attention to subjective value in the field of negotiation research (Curhan et al., 2016), questions remain about cultural universality of the SVI given the utilization of questionnaire responses mostly restricted to residents of the New England area in the United States in the creation of the original tool. In order to bridge the gap of cultural generalizability between the American sample informing the SVI creation and a Chinese context, and to provide a model for understanding the culturally specific elements of subjective value, the present study seeks to identify Chinese-specific subjective value criteria by administering an open ended questionnaire and coding responses into different categories. Preliminary findings identify 1) face and 2) guanxi as emerging themes distinct from the original conceptualization of the SVI, underscoring the importance of cultural context in evaluating subjective value. The present study represents the first step to creating a Chinese Subjective Value Inventory.

Keywords: subjective value, negotiation, cross-cultural negotiation, China