Virtual Negotiation Research Articles

Distributed cooperative guidance strategy based on virtual negotiation and rolling optimization

The problem of multi-UAV cooperative guidance under target maneuvering conditions is studied, and a distributed cooperative guidance strategy based on virtual negotiation mechanism and rolling horizon optimization is proposed. Firstly, in order to improve the time coordination and guidance control effect at the same time, local coordination variables and objective functions are designed under the rolling horizon optimization framework, and a multi-constrained cooperative guidance optimization model in a limited time domain is constructed; secondly, in order to enhance the robustness of the guidance system to maneuvering targets, a disturbance observer based on nonlinear autoregressive neural network is designed; thirdly, for the control input coupling between UAVs, a virtual negotiation mechanism is proposed to achieve synchronous decision-making and eliminate internal "differences", and the root mean square propagation algorithm of Nesterov momentum is used to design the guidance command generation strategy; finally, digital simulation and semi-physical simulation experiments are carried out respectively. The results show that the proposed guidance strategy can cope with various interferences and improve the cooperative guidance effect through online prediction and optimization, and is expected to be further applied and tested in actual tasks.

Negotiating in the metaverse—it is more than just avatars

In 2020, many companies had to adapt to virtual negotiations. Some did so more effectively than others. Now that in-person negotiation is possible again, people can use virtual negotiation spaces to save money, increase efficiency, support your team members, and improve the process. However, many companies do not know how to use the virtual spaces effectively. This article, written by a person who used virtual opportunities to negotiate long before the pandemic, offers advice and recommendations so that you can use the metaverse while preparing for, and undertaking, negotiations. From establishing "safe rooms" for document storage and sidebar conversations to "bio breaks" and decorating a virtual negotiation room, whether you use a single-space online system or a multi-floor virtual building, this article provides elements to consider and reminders to follow. You also receive caution about some of the new artificial intelligence assistants that may require legal or other approvals to use.

Exploring The Missing Link Between Trust in Business Negotiation and Virtual Work

This article addressed the relevance of Trust in online business negotiations. The purpose of this paper is two-fold. Firstly, this article provides an overview of the literature on Trust, business negotiations, and virtual work to address the research gap on Trust in virtual business negotiations. Secondly, based on this overview, we developed a theoretical model encompassing factors, practices, and tools that impact Trust in online business negotiations. After a systematic review, key findings pointed out that Trust significantly influences the virtual negotiation environment. Also, we discovered that we need to study coherently defining the factors that influence Trust in the virtual environment and demonstrate how it is connected to the overall virtual negotiation process. We conclude that the factors, practices, and tools that directly influence online negotiations are distance, time, perceived distance, culture, available technology, and reputation.

The impact of virtual negotiation training for female faculty.

We developed a virtual interactive course for female faculty/practicing physicians and trainees to hone their skills in negotiation and sought to evaluate the impact of this on their knowledge, comfort, and skill in negotiation. We surveyed participants as to their comfort and experience with negotiation before and after the course, as well as three months later. Of the 102 participants in the faculty course, 55 (53.9%) were academic ladder faculty, and 47 (46.1%) were in surgery or a surgical subspecialty. Participants were significantly more comfortable with negotiation initiation, strategy, and post-settlement settlement after the course (p < 0.001 for each). 91.1% found the course valuable, 92.9% felt their knowledge about negotiation increased, and 85.7% wished they would have taken this course earlier. 98.2% stated they were likely to use some of the things they learned in this course in future. Three months later, 40.7% of respondents stated they had used what they had learned: 57.7, 41.7, and 32.0% had negotiated for pay, promotion, or job-related perks, respectively. These negotiations went "better than expected" in 26.6, 30, and 37.5%, respectively. Prior to the course, only 3 (2.9%) felt that their last negotiation went "very well" or better; three months after the course, 28% felt their last negotiation after the course went "very well" or "extremely well" (p = 0.002). Negotiation training can have a significant impact on female physicians' comfort in initiating negotiation, negotiation strategy and post-settlement discussions. Such training significantly increases "better than expected" negotiations.

The impact of a virtual negotiation training course on female trainees

BackgroundNegotiation training has been posited to help reduce gender wage disparities. We sought to evaluate the impact of a virtual negotiations training course (VNTC) on female trainees. Methods111 female trainees participated in the course; 42 completed both pre- and post-course surveys. Results95.5% had no prior negotiation training. After the course, more trainees reported feeling “pretty comfortable” or “extremely comfortable” with initiating negotiation (8.3% vs. 94.1%, p < 0.001) and negotiation strategy (0% vs. 50.0%, p < 0.001). Three months later, 44% had negotiated for compensation; 63.6% felt the negotiation went “better than expected”. Compared to the last major negotiation they had prior to taking the course, trainees were more likely to state that their last major negotiation after the course went “very well” or “extremely well” (2.0% vs. 50.0%, p < 0.001). ConclusionMost female medical trainees do not get negotiation training; however, these data demonstrate a significant benefit of such training.

The role of cognitive capital in supply chain resilience: an investigation during the COVID-19 pandemic

PurposeResearch on the “black box” of cognitive capital remains limited in supply chain resilience (SCRES) literature. Drawing from an in-depth single case study of a major consumer electronics multinational facing the COVID-19 disruption, this paper aims to develop a clearer picture of cognitive capital’s elements while contextualizing how they interact with SCRES temporal capabilities to prepare, respond, recover and learn.Design/methodology/approachConsisting of 40 in-depth interviews collected during a four-month period, this single case revolves around the buyer’s view across 36 multiregional buyer–supplier dyads, spanning 17 product and service categories. Data were processed during the pandemic, while findings discuss pre- and intra-crisis events based on two scenarios: the impact of disruption on category demand, comparing sudden pandemic-driven product and service demand fluctuations (i.e. increase, decrease); and the geographical proximity of the supplier relative to the buying firm.FindingsThe case unveils different elements of cognitive capital (e.g. shared goals, assumptions, values, kinesics language, multilingualism, virtual negotiation, prior disruption experience, shared process capabilities) during a major global disruption, suggesting that different cognitive capital elements influence positively and differently SCRES’ temporal capabilities. Overall, buying firms are urged to build on cognitive capital to improve SCRES preparation, response, recovery and learning.Originality/valueThis paper extends the understanding of cognitive capital in buyer–supplier relationships by identifying its elements and offering a theoretical articulation of how they enable episodically the four SCRES temporal capabilities under contingencies of increased and decreased demands, and suppliers’ geographical proximity.

The possible role of empathy and emotions in virtual negotiation

The goal of the present study is to explore the role of empathic and emotional skills in virtual negotiation, and to try to verify their possible role in different contexts: monetary/non-monetary, in circumstances in which a counterparty is familiar or unknown, and with respect to polite or rude responses from the negotiating counterparty. To this end, 320 participants aged between 19 to 25 years old were involved in a simulated virtual negotiation. Participants were required to fill in a Basic Empathy Scale (BES) questionnaire, they were also asked to report the prevalent emotion they had felt during the interaction, and if they thought they were interacting with a real person. The results of this research confirm the tendency of participants to minimise losses. Although the capacity for empathy does not seem to have a role, the behaviour of participants appears more cooperative when they have to deal with a familiar negotiation counterparty. Emotions appear to play a positive role when negotiating with, what is perceived to be, a real person. Practitioner summary: We conducted this study as part of a Master’s Degree programme which was specifically focussed on human-computer interaction. Results show that negotiation was affected by emotions experienced during the experiment, and by the perception of the negotiating counterparty as a familiar person more so than by empathy. Abbreviations: AE: affective empathy; AMIS: assessment model of internet systems; ANOVA: ANalysis Of VAriance; BES: base empathy scale; CE: cognitive empathy; CMC: computer mediated communication; ENS: e-negotiation systems; FTF: face-to-face communication; NSA: negotiation support agents; PC: personal computer.

Towards Integration of Cognitive Models in Dialogue Management: Designing the Virtual Negotiation Coach Application

This paper presents an approach to flexible and adaptive dialogue management driven by cognitive modelling of human dialogue behaviour. Artificial intelligent agents, based on the ACT-R cognitive architecture, together with human actors are participating in a (meta)cognitive skills training within a negotiation scenario. The agent employs instance-based learning to decide about its own actions and to reflect on the behaviour of the opponent. We show that task-related actions can be handled by a cognitive agent who is a plausible dialogue partner. Separating task-related and dialogue control actions enables the application of sophisticated models along with a flexible architecture in which various alternative modelling methods can be combined. We evaluated the proposed approach with users assessing the relative contribution of various factors to the overall usability of a dialogue system. Subjective perception of effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction were correlated with various objective performance metrics, e.g. number of (in)appropriate system responses, recovery strategies, and interaction pace. It was observed that the dialogue system usability is determined most by the quality of agreements reached in terms of estimated Pareto optimality, by the user's negotiation strategies selected, and by the quality of system recognition, interpretation and responses. We compared human-human and human-agent performance with respect to the number and quality of agreements reached, estimated cooperativeness level, and frequency of accepted negative outcomes. Evaluation experiments showed promising, consistently positive results throughout the range of the relevant scales.

Exploring the Potential Impact of Serious Games on Social Learning and Stakeholder Collaborations for Transboundary Watershed Management of the St. Lawrence River Basin

The meaningful participation of stakeholders in decision-making is now widely recognized as a crucial element of effective water resource management, particularly with regards to adapting to climate and environmental change. Social learning is increasingly being cited as an important component of engagement if meaningful participation is to be achieved. The exact definition of social learning is still a matter under debate, but is taken to be a process in which individuals experience a change in understanding that is brought about by social interaction. Social learning has been identified as particularly important in transboundary contexts, where it is necessary to reframe problems from a local to a basin-wide perspective. In this study, social learning is explored in the context of transboundary water resource management in the St. Lawrence River Basin. The overarching goal of this paper is to explore the potential role of serious games to improve social learning in the St. Lawrence River. To achieve this end, a two-pronged approach is followed: (1) Assessing whether social learning is currently occurring and identifying what the barriers to social learning are through interviews with the region’s water resource managers; (2) Undertaking a literature review to understand the mechanisms through which serious games enhance social learning to understand which barriers serious games can break down. Interview questions were designed to explore the relevance of social learning in the St. Lawrence River basin context, and to identify the practices currently employed that impact on social learning. While examples of social learning that is occurring have been identified, preliminary results suggest that these examples are exceptions rather than the rule, and that on the whole, social learning is not occurring to its full potential. The literature review of serious games offers an assessment of such collaborative mechanisms in terms of design principles, modes of play, and their potential impact on social learning for transboundary watershed management. Serious game simulations provide new opportunities for multidirectional collaborative processes by bringing diverse stakeholders to the table, providing more equal access to a virtual negotiation or learning space to develop and share knowledge, integrating different knowledge domains, and providing opportunities to test and analyze the outcomes of novel management solutions. This paper concludes with a discussion of how serious games can address specific barriers and weaknesses to social learning in the transboundary watershed context of the St. Lawrence River Basin.

CARAVAN: Congestion Avoidance and Route Allocation Using Virtual Agent Negotiation

Traffic congestion becomes a cascading phenomenon when vehicles from a road segment chaotically spill on to successive road segments. Such uncontrolled dispersion of vehicles can be avoided by evenly distributing vehicles along alternative routes. This paper proposes a practical multiagent-based approach, which is designed to achieve acceptable route allocation within a short time frame and with low communication overheads. In the proposed approach, which is called Congestion Avoidance and Route Allocation using Virtual Agent Negotiation (CARAVAN), vehicle agents (VAs) in the local vicinity communicate with each other before designated decision points (junctions) along their route. Cooperative route-allocation decisions are performed at these junctions. VAs use intervehicular communication to propagate key traffic information and undertake its distributed processing. Every VA exchanges its autonomously calculated route preference information to arrive at an initial allocation of routes. The allocation is improved using a number of successive virtual negotiation “deals.” The virtual nature of these deals requires no physical communication and, thereby, reduces communication requirements. In addition to the theory and concept, this paper presents the design and implementation methodology of CARAVAN, including experimental results for synthetic and real-world road networks. Results show that when compared against the shortest path algorithm for travel time improvements, CARAVAN offers 21%-43% gain (when traffic demand is below network capacity) and 13%-17% gain (when traffic demand exceeds network capacity), demonstrating its ability to regulate overall system traffic using local coordination strategies.

The Negotiation Support System for High-Tech Virtual Enterprise

To solve the cooperation-conflict negotiation problems among the members of High-tech Virtual Enterprise (HTVE), High-tech Virtual Enterprise Negotiation Support System (HTVE-NSS) based on RIA architecture is put forward. According to the operation characteristics of High-tech Virtual Enterprise, in this system, the structure of High-tech Virtual Enterprise Negotiation Support System is designed, which consists of the problem processing system, the model base system and remote conference system. And HTVE-NSS adopts artificial intelligence technology to design problem processing system (PPS), and uses UML-Petri net to describe the process of model. The architecture of Negotiation Conference System based on Flex and RIA is designed and Red5 Streaming media server is introduced to support conference interaction, which effectively supports the way to solve the conflict between High-Tech Virtual Enterprises by negotiating.

Development of Future Generations: Oriented Virtual Negotiation Support System for Intergenerational Conflict

Abstract Intergenerational conflict coordination is the fundamental requirement and core of sustainable development. In this paper, through the analysis of the future generations-oriented management mechanisms for intergenerational conflict, the idea of mechanisms and institution building for the coordination and management of intergenerational conflict is put forward. Furthermore, the future generations-oriented virtual negotiation support system (NSS) for intergenerational conflict is developed, built on the analysis of the process simulation of intergenerational wealth transfer, intergenerational equilibrium allocation of resources, and strategies for the mitigation and avoidance of intergenerational conflict, through the application of advanced IT technology. The virtual NSS for intergenerational conflict is helpful to the practical application of the sustainable development theory; on the other hand, it can be applied directly to the intergenerational equilibrium allocation of resources, national economic accounting, formulation of sustainable development strategies and other urgent national economic and social development issues. Finally, the sustainable development theory can be enriched and extended. Therefore, the development of the future generations-oriented virtual NSS for intergenerational conflict has certain theoretical and practical effects on the theory of sustainable development.

Gender Differences in Virtual Negotiation: Theory and Research

Social roles create conflicting behavioral expectations for female negotiators; however, virtual negotiations reduce social pressures. This paper reviews theoretical explanations on why men and women might differ in negotiations that occur through email, telephone, or video. Forty-three negotiation studies comparing face-to-face and virtual negotiations were examined for gender differences. All studies were reported in English but not limited to US participants. While many reports omitted gender information, meta-analytic findings supported the prediction that women would be more hostile in virtual compared to face-to-face negotiations, as well as finding no hostility difference for men between virtual and face-to-face negotiations. While negotiators overall were more successful face-to-face than virtually, results separated by gender did not find this effect.

NDMP-plus: An improved protocol for network based data management

Network based data management is the backup/restore mechanism used in a data storage center. This paper presents a new network based data management—NDMP-Plus, a revision of network data management protocol. Components and the working mechanism of the NDMP-Plus architecture are first discussed. Two new techniques in NDMP-Plus—virtual storage layer (VSL) and negotiation mechanism are then studied. VSL is a crucial component to achieve flexibility, and the negotiation mechanism is a key to improve performance. Furthermore, experiments are carried out to evaluate the performance of NDMP-Plus. The result suggests that NDMP-Plus has stronger flexibility and better performance than NDMP.

Hostile Behavior and Profit in Virtual Negotiation: a Meta-Analysis

Virtual negotiations are expected to differ from face-to-face negotiations in terms of both negotiator behavior and outcomes. Nonetheless, competing theories and mixed results characterize this literature. This paper meta-analytically reviews studies that compared face-to-face negotiation with virtual negotiation (e.g., audio, email/text, video-conferencing). Competing predictions from psychological distance theory and the barrier effect perspective were tested. Overall, results supported the psychological distance theory in that face-to-face negotiations were less hostile and resulted in higher profit than virtual negotiations. Three moderators (negotiation mode, anonymity in virtual negotiation, and further interaction within the experiment) were hypothesized to impact virtual negotiation. While some moderators were significant, they did not completely account for findings across all studies. Results and discussion provide a note of caution for individuals embracing e-business and conducting Internet negotiations as well as suggestions for future research.

Multi-agent Negotiation In The Prestige Oil SpillResponse Scenario: A Conflict ResolutionMechanism Design And Simulations

Contingency management facing an imminent oil spill is often a difficult task as the long-term consequences of decisions generally affect the interests of different stakeholder groups including the broad public. We suggest here that a balanced response scheme can be achieved by integrating various interests within a virtual negotiation process. This paper designs a hybrid negotiation protocol where multiple issues including money compensation are traded by parties. Aiming to examine appropriate designs of this process in multi-agent systems, we simulate negotiations based on the Prestige oil spill response scenario. Experiment results show that this designed protocol may work as a robust conflict resolution mechanism for deriving a multi-agent consensus. Finally, by comparing two different rational strategies taken by agents, we add support to the view that learning techniques help agents to improve their payoffs in negotiations.

Dynamic Plots in Virtual Negotiations

Advanced information and communications technology provides the basis for continuous monitoring of, and rapid data exchange about, crucial operations. Of special interest are those conflict situations where organizations continuously readjust mutually affecting decisions, considering the competitors' choices, but without communicating verbally. An example refers to trucking companies who base their decisions, which trucks to assign to different routes, on the competitors' assignments. To support the decision process for these types of virtual negotiation settings, a new dynamic plot approach is proposed. Dynamic plots can be used to visualize the decision topology of all parties and the impact of making a decision on all parties. Of special interest in this paper are dynamic plots with an individual stability equilibrium, where competitors do not revise their decisions unless a change in the market occurs. Dynamic plots for 2 × 2 conflict situations are discussed first, followed by a discussion of 3 × 3 conflict situations. The paper closes with a discussion of a computer implementation and empirical evidence of virtual negotiations with dynamic plots. The results of these virtual negotiations suggest that dynamic plots stimulate virtual negotiations and support efficiency, equity, and system optimum for these types of real-time negotiations.

Agent behaviors in virtual negotiation environments

A computational prototype of negotiation behavior is presented where the following occurs: (1) agents employ different concession matching tactics; (2) agents are unaware of opponent preferences; (3) agents incur a cost for delaying settlements; (4) agents vary in terms of goal difficulty and initial offer magnitude; and (5) demands and counter-offers are made and evaluated based on the opponent's degree of concession matching. This research explores the impact of the interaction of different agent behaviors on the negotiation process and the outcome of the negotiation. Simulation experiments show that the prototype is able to manifest fundamental patterns and confirms the effectiveness of classical negotiation and mediation strategies, such as ambitious goals and aggressive concession matching tactics. The model reveals some counterintuitive patterns that may shed a new perspective on the effects of time constraints and information availability.