Prof. Jagdip Singh (Case Western Reserve University)

Programm

Datum: 23. Oktober 2019

Zeit: 10.30 - 12.00 Uhr

Ort: Ludwigstraße 28 (VG), 211b

Titel: Digital Negotiations and Influence Tactics

Abstract

Digital negotiations—when B2B contracts are settled over electronic mail—are increasingly common in B2B sales but little is known about their effectiveness. We examine sellers’ use of influence tactics in managing buyer attention during digital negotiations for contract award. We conceptualize buyer attention as a key mechanism that explains how influence tactics affect contract award. Using longitudinal panel spanning 2.5 years of actual email communications between principal buyers and salespeople, we develop a validated corpus of textual cues that are uniquely diagnostic of influence tactics in digital negotiations. To test the proposed hypotheses, the digital communications data are augmented by in-depth interviews with the sales organization, a survey to collect salespeople’s attitude and demographics, as well as archival performance data. The obtained results demonstrate that the concurrent use of compliance or internalization-based tactics draw and sustain buyer’s attention in the short term to win contracts in the long run. However, a simultaneous use of compliance and internalization-based tactics degrade buyer attention.