Negotiating on the Internet: Insights From a Cross-Cultural Exercise

Abstract

In this article, the authors describe a classroom exercise in which students from the United States negotiated with students from Australia, using only e-mail as the communicating medium. The authors discuss the results of those negotiations and lessons learned by students and instructors using a medium with modest information richness in a cross-cultural environment. The results and the lessons learned by students and instructors related to the choice of task, preparing or training students, matching student negotiators, managing time and incentives, intervening when problems arise, and debriefing experiences.