Business negotiation tendencies of Finnish and Kosovan negotiators: The role of culture

In today’s global economy, international business negotiations play a fundamental and critical role in every aspect of conducting business. International business negotiation does not only involve mastering the issues that are being discussed, but also cultural sensitivity in understanding the characteristics and behaviors of the partners and adapting one’s way of negotiating. The purpose of this study is to explore the role of culture in the negotiating tendencies of Finnish and Kosovan business negotiators by using Salacuse’ s framework of ten elements and Hofstede's cultural framework. As a research approach, the quantitative method was applied. The analysis of Finnish and Kosovan negotiation tendencies was studied through a questionnaire, where 10 Finnish negotiators and 10 Kosovan negotiators participated. The questionnaire was sent to each respondent separately via e-mail. Findings suggest that only four out of ten elements (personal style, agreement building, team organization, and risk-taking) significantly differ between Finnish and Kosovan negotiators. However, it is found that except for four elements (communication, emotionalism, agreement form, and risk-taking), culture does not explain the similarities as well as differences in remaining elements of Finnish and Kosovan negotiators. Therefore, culture does not fully explain the negotiation style of Finnish and Kosovan negotiators. In terms of tactics, both literature review and empirical findings indicate that Finnish and Kosovan negotiators use similar tactics, which means that culture fully explains the chosen tactics of Finnish and Kosovan negotiators. For future research, to get a wider understanding, larger samples should be collected. Additionally, more literature reviews of Kosovan negotiators’ behavior should be conducted. Finally, the whole negotiation process of both cultures could investigate to get a more in-depth view