Decision-Making Analysis Of Sino-American Negotiation

The last century has witnessed rapid economic development around the world and wide economic cooperation between countries and regions. Along with the strengthening of Chinese economy and further integration with the global market, the trade conflicts and frictions between China and other countries especially America are inevitable and with a trend of escalation. However the leaders of both China and America agree that the frictions won't lead to reversion and the negotiation or conversation is a proper way to settle business disputes. In fact the results of negotiation usually have been decided before the negotiators meet around the table. And this completely depends on the quality of preparation. Generally, the tougher the negotiations are, the more you should prepare: to make a proper decision analysis of negotiation. In this thesis, the insights of Sino-American business negotiation are examined with a focus on the integrative and overall approach of the negotiation decision-making theory.The first two chapters are a conceptual and theoretical review about the nature of negotiation and decision-making theory. Based on Howard Riffa's (2002) definition of the two kinds of negotiation and its four major decision-making approaches, the theoretical framework for this thesis is manifested. And in Chapter 2, the illustration of those four decision-making approaches lays stress on the latter two approaches: game theory and negotiation analysis theory. In fact there is no single approach to negotiation, and each approach produces insights and a general understanding of the negotiation process. And the reality of negotiation is apprehended only by approaches from many directions. Then Chapter 3 introduces Sino-American business negotiation from the aspects of Sino-American business relationship, conflicts and actual negotiations, and in the last part of this chapter I use a case in point try to find the connotative and real causes of the conflicts and disputes between China and America. In virtue of the previous groundwork, Chapter 4 makes an in-depth decision-making analysis of Sino-American business negotiation. This chapter begins with an overall and integrative approach that should be adopted in analysis of Sino-American business negotiation. And then through the study of type, behavior and attitude of the negotiation, this thesis reveals four steps of decision-making process that should be prepared before meeting around the table to negotiate face to face. Furthermore, the concluding part of this thesis indicates that the decision-making approaches of negotiations are not exclusively unchanging and both American negotiators and Chinese negotiators should strategically adopt the proper decision-making approach before or at the negotiating table. According to this finding, the last part of this thesis also offers some concrete advices for Chinese negotiators from the behavior descriptive approach and points out some limitations about the research results, which would hopefully help future studies in this field.