Towards an interdisciplinary perspective of training intervention for negotiations: Developing strategic negotiation support contents

This paper presents a prototype negotiation support system (NSS) intended to help the user to analyze the economic underpinnings of the negotiation, and to construct an initial offer. We also present the results of a behavioral test of the system using techniques from the field of experimental economics. In the test, negotiators have private, asymmetric information about the value of the negotiated item. In one treatment both negotiators operate without an NSS, and in a second treatment the seller has an NSS. The data shows that the NSS assisted negotiators make offers that lead to better price outcomes for themselves. The NSS is web-based and the system might have particular relevance for e-negotiating.