FACTORS INFLUENCING THE COOPERATIVE PROCESS OF CROSS-BORDER MERGER AND ACQUISITION’S NEGOTIATION IN FACE-TO-FACE:THE ROLE OF INDIVIDUAL, STRATEGIC, AND CONTEXTUAL COMPONENTS

摘要

Academic endeavors in international business research have produced a number of convincing studies that argue for the importance of negotiation activities and environments in the process of the global interaction of two international counterparts. Despite the effort and time given to negotiation research, the empirical and academic investigation of the relationship between the influencing factors and the process or outcome of negotiations is still fresh. The issues in negotiation dynamics can be categorized so that they can be explained in a broader group of components defined by characteristics such as individual, strategic, and contextual components, which influence the cooperative process during international M&A negotiations. What are the desirable outcome variables? Those issues still need to be explored due to the very nature of the negotiation activity. Thus, this research empirically tests the effects of attractiveness and personality (i.e., compliance, aggressiveness, and detachement) as the individual components, tactics (i.e., hard, rational, and soft) as the strategic components, and time pressure and relative power (i.e., legitimate, reputational, and informational) as the contextual components on the face-to-face cooperative negotiation process of international M&As, which is intended to ensure satisfaction and strengthen future relationships. We performed regression analysis in SPSS with 11 observable variables, with the cooperative process of negotiation as a dependent variable. Samples were collected through a questionnaire survey of respondents who were experienced in international M&A negotiations with foreign partners. The results showed that variables such as the attractiveness, rational tactics, and reputational power of negotiators have a strong positive influence, and the perceived time pressure and a compliant personality have a strong negative effect on the cooperative atmosphere during face-to-face M&A negotiations. Most hypotheses were supported as we predicted, whereas the negative influence of a compliant personality on the cooperativeness was unexpected. This is due to the broad range of its definition, which includes sensitivity and generosity both in a compliant individual, for instance (Brooks and Rose, 2004). This research contributes to our understanding and discovery of the links assumed based on the previous research. It thereby also contributes to the formulation of a practical strategy before the actual negotiation activity by reviewing the important variables in each category such as the individual, strategic, and contextual components. Methodologically, we overcame the previous limitations of descriptive research and of Kelley’s (1966) simulation study that used student samples, by conducting the survey with experienced international negotiators. With our application of a process-related variable instead of the financial outcome as the dependent variable, we also overcame the traditional perspective of a win-lose pie sum by steering towards a win-win perspective in equilibrium.