Strategic Negotiations for Sustainable Value : A Guide to Lasting Business Deals

Mouzas, Stefanos (2022) Strategic Negotiations for Sustainable Value : A Guide to Lasting Business Deals. Routledge, London. ISBN 9780367430597

Abstract

This book is about strategic negotiations for sustainable value. The core message that encapsulates the essence of the book is learning how to negotiate deals that create sustainable value. In other words, the book is not about learning short-term games, tactics or persuasion; instead, the book is a negotiator’s guide to lasting business deals, deals that are environmentally, socially and economically sustainable in an international business context. Strategic negotiations are highly relevant in today’s globally interconnected business landscape. The resources that managers, policymakers and organisations need to solve their problems, gain and retain valuable customers, launch and re-launch new products or services, and develop profitable business are not available in a single, concentrated form. The resources that negotiators need to solve their problems are widely dispersed among many actors in different geographies and within various networks of inter-connected business relationships. Managers, for example, need to negotiate with multiple stakeholders, such as suppliers, customers, agencies, governments and authorities, often with conflicting interests. This interconnected business landscape is not a homogenous and harmonious environment, where we could presume that mutual gains among different stakeholders are transparently clear. Creating and capturing sustainable value is not a fixed entity but rather the outcome of time-consuming and often agonizing negotiations that affect further negotiations. Providing illustrative case studies, this book on strategic negotiations elaborates in a pragmatic and intellectually stimulating way: 1) the strategic challenges that negotiators face in an interconnected business landscape, 2) the intellectual tools of a mindset that aims to create and capture sustainable value, 3) the behavioural biases and cognitive errors encountered in strategic negotiations, 4) the various avenues by which negotiators manifest their agreements in contracts, 5) and the managerial implications of negotiating strategically.