Too precise to pursue: How precise first offers create barriers-to-entry in negotiations and markets

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

Prior research shows that precise first offers strongly anchor negotiation outcomes. This precision advantage, however, has been documented only when the parties were already in a negotiation. We introduce the concept of negotiation entry, i.e., the decision to enter a negotiation with a particular party. We predict that precise prices create barriers-to-entry, reducing a counterpart's likelihood of entering a negotiation. Six studies (N = 1580) and one archival analysis of real estate data (N = 11,203) support our barrier-to-entry prediction: Potential negotiators were less likely to enter a negotiation with precise- versus round-offer makers. Using both statistical mediation and experimental-causal-chain analyses, we establish that perceptions of offer-maker inflexibility underlie the precision barrier. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the precision mechanism (inflexibility) is distinct from the extremity mechanism (being offended) that produces barriers-to-entry from extreme first offers. The discussion theoretically integrates research on first-offer precision and extremity by offering the Precision-Extremity Model of First Offers.

Original languageEnglish
JournalOrganizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes
Volume148
Pages (from-to)87-100
Number of pages14
ISSN0749-5978
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 01.09.2018

    Research areas

  • Anchor precision, Barriers-to-entry, Decision making, First offers, Negotiation entry, Social attribution
  • Psychology
  • Business psychology

Recently viewed

Researchers

  1. Luca Scheunpflug

Publications

  1. Score-Informed Analysis of Tuning, Intonation, Pitch Modulation, and Dynamics in Jazz Solos
  2. The tip of the iceberg: laptop music and the information-technological transformation of music
  3. Reality Mining
  4. Migrant struggles and moral economies of subversion
  5. Comparison of different methods for the measurement of ammonia volatilization after urea application in Henan Province, China
  6. Spatial scale affects seed predation and dispersal in contrasting anthropogenic landscapes
  7. An archetype analysis of sustainability innovations in Biosphere Reserves: Insights for assessing transformative potential
  8. Current Status of CSR in the Realm of Supply Management
  9. Experimental reduction of land use increases invertebrate abundance in grasslands
  10. Double perspective taking processes of primary children - adoption and application of a psychological instrument
  11. The Island of the Day After.
  12. The "Attention" Entrapment Phenomenon
  13. A novel radio-frequency plasma probe for monitoring systems in dielectric deposition processes
  14. Moving beyond the heuristic of creative destruction
  15. Coupling stakeholder assessments of ecosystem services with biophysical ecosystem properties reveals importance of social contexts
  16. Smile
  17. Between Usability and Trustworthiness-The Potential of Information Transfer Using Digital Information Platforms for Refugees
  18. Documenting and Describing the Transcultural
  19. Hans Teske
  20. Logic as a Medium
  21. Development of an ex-vitro system allowing plant-bacteria interactions through VOCs in the context of water stress
  22. The aesthetic of vulnerability un-heard female voices and the question of identity and recognition in the work of Ken Bugul and Fatou Diome
  23. Aesthetics of the Earth. Reframing Relational Aesthetics Considering Critical Ecologies
  24. Gods of tomorrow?
  25. Knowledge and social learning for sustainable development
  26. The science-policy interface on ecosystems and people
  27. Ronald David Laing