The Effects of Personal Value Similarity on Business Negotiations

This study examines whether shared personal values affect adaptability and attitude towards a foreign partner in business negotiations. Two values were experimentally investigated—time processing orientation and agreement preference. Shared time orientations and agreement preferences did not consistently result in greater adaptability and attitude toward the foreign partner than value differences between negotiators. Furthermore, shared oral agreement preferences elicited greater adaptability only selectively, while shared written preferences produced no significant differences against the other agreement preference conditions. No attitudinal differences were observed for agreement preference.