Section 2 Definition of international business negotiations

     The conflicts are existing in our lives in various levels. The first level is intrapersonal conflict, which is the conflict within an individual for ideas, thoughts, emotions, values, predispositions or drives that are in conflict with each other. Such conflict can be solved by personal balance of an individual’s need in the inner world. The second level is interpersonal conflict, which occurs between co-workers, spouses, siblings, roommates, or neighbors. The conflicts in this level are not uncommon in our lives, and most of the conflicts can be coped with by negotiation. The third level is intragroup conflict. This level of conflict occurs within a group such as among team and work group members and within families, classes, living units, and tribes. The fourth level is intergroup conflict, which occurs between organizations, ethnic groups, warring nations, or feuding (争执的) families or within splintered (分裂的), fragmented (分散的) communities.

     Intragroup and intergroup conflicts can still be successfully dealt with through negotiation to a large extent. In short, negotiation plays an important and effective role in resolving conflicts and adjusting interests.

1. Introduction to negotiations

According to Collins English Dictionary, negotiations are formal discussions between people who have different aims or intentions, especially in business or politics, during which they try to reach an agreement. Negotiation is a common human activity as well as a process that people undertake every day to manage their relationships such as the relationship between husband and wife, children and parents, a buyer and a seller. It is obvious that negotiation is a dynamic process in which two or more parties discuss common and conflicting interests in order to reach a mutually satisfying agreement. Negotiation is an important way for people to get what you want from others and it can also make mutual benefit to each other for most of the time. Thus people make negotiations at work, at home, or as consumers even when they don’t think so.

2. Introduction to business negotiations

Business negotiation is just a kind of negotiation in the field of economy. Specifically speaking, business negotiation refers to a process in the domain of economy for two or more organizations or individuals who go into business to exchange views and make communication to reach agreement so as to meet their own economic interests.

There are some features of business negotiations which are worth noticing in the specific negotiations:

1. The objective of business negotiation is to gain economic interests. Every business negotiation is for the negotiators to get financial interests and efficiency.

2. Negotiation is at the heart of every transaction and, for the most part, it comes down to the interaction between two parties with a common goal (profit) but the conflicts are still existing.

3. The conflicts must be negotiated and resolved to the satisfaction of both parties, which can be a very tiring process with confrontation and concession.

4. The core of business negotiation is price. Business negotiation involves such items as product quality, quantity, delivery and payment, which are closely related to price. Furthermore, price is an indication of profits.

5.Both parties know they have common and conflicting objectives. Thus, they try to find a solution acceptable to both sides.

6.There is no such thing as “take it or leave it” in international business. Everything is negotiable. What can be obtained depends on the negotiators.

     Business negotiations involve the negotiations in the scopes of trade in goods & services, investment, labor force input and out, technology transfer, economic cooperation and so on.

3. Introduction to international business negotiations

International business negotiation as a part of business negotiation which goes global. International business negotiation refers to a process, in the domain of international business, for interested parties from different countries or regions to exchange information and make discussion on all the essentials related to making a deal so as to arrive at a deal.