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Negotiators’ Attitudes toward Signing Business Contracts: Evidence from Greece and Israel
Author(s) -
Stefanidis Abraham,
Banai Moshe,
Shetach Ana
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
thunderbird international business review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.553
H-Index - 37
eISSN - 1520-6874
pISSN - 1096-4762
DOI - 10.1002/tie.21697
Subject(s) - collectivism , negotiation , idealism , individualism , sign (mathematics) , hofstede's cultural dimensions theory , business , uncertainty avoidance , marketing , commercial law , public relations , social psychology , law , psychology , political science , mathematical analysis , philosophy , mathematics , epistemology
This study extends beyond negotiation process and styles, and focuses on negotiators’ tendency to sign formal contracts. Drawing on a risk mitigation perspective, it examines the influence of businesspeople's levels of horizontal and vertical individualism‐collectivism, ethical idealism, and trust propensity on their attitudes toward signing formal negotiated business contracts in Greece and in Israel. A survey questionnaire was translated from English to Greek and to Hebrew, and 649 responses were collected from employees who worked in industries such as banking, insurance, construction, manufacturing, retailing, and tourism in the Greek and Israeli private and public sectors. Our findings suggest that higher levels of horizontal individualism, horizontal collectivism, and ethical idealism increase employees’ tendency to sign formal contracts, whereas lower levels of general trust are associated with a higher propensity to sign formal contracts. Interestingly, employees’ propensity to sign formal contracts was significantly lower in Israel than in Greece. We argue that the propensity to sign formal contracts, and thus to mitigate potential agreement risks, is dependent on the individuals’ cultural and personal attributes. The study provides practitioners with a set of cultural and individual attributes that can serve as predictors of negotiators’ predisposition toward signing business contracts. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc .