Cell Phone Negotiations MGT 557 April 8, 2013

Cell Phone Negotiations In today’s society, cell phones have become and necessitate and also have become a billion dollar business. Distributors of cell phones look for maximum profit by buying from manufactures’ at the cheapest price. Not only does price matter in negotiations, but considerations for individual differences such as cultural differences must occur for the outcome of a negotiation to be successful. In today’s economy, it is not uncommon for companies to go overseas for cheaper manufactures’ cost to increase profits. However, American companies who wish to compete internally in manufacturing products face the high labor costs in the United States compared to foreign countries. In this paper, the author will discuss a negotiation between a Chinese and an American negotiation team over cell phone cost per unit and possible influences that go into the negotiations such as gender difference, personality, culture and perception, cognition, and emotion.
Summary of Cell Phone Negotiation The negotiation involves two teams, the all-American negotiating team from the United States and the Chinese team. The all American team seeks a cell phone price of $6 dollars per unit and embodies the following Hofstede’s cultural dimensions: individualistic, low-power distance, low-term orientation and low-context. The other team is an all-female negotiating team from China that offers cell phones with a $9 per unit price tag and the Chinese team embodies the following Hofstede’s