More or less ethical

The ethics of a person's negotiating tactics may differ according to the nationality of the other party to the negotiation, according to a new study. Business is increasingly global, so ethical concerns are becoming more important in terms of cross-national business and negotiations - David De Cremer Do the ethics of a person's negotiating tactics differ when they negotiate with someone from a different country? A new study co-authored at University of Cambridge Judge Business School suggests that they do. While some prior studies have looked at the relative negotiating ethics of different nationalities, the new study, entitled " How ethically would Americans and Chinese negotiate? The effect of intra-cultural versus inter-cultural negotiations ", published in the Journal of Business Ethics looks at a significant new factor: it finds that the nationality of the counterparty to negotiations can make people prefer the use of more or less ethical strategies, particularly in areas such as false promises and inappropriate information gathering. "Business is increasingly global, so ethical concerns are becoming more important in terms of cross-national business and negotiations," said co-author David De Cremer, KPMG Professor of Management Studies at Cambridge Judge. "This study shows that the other party's nationality can affect the ethics of negotiating tactics, and this has important implications." The study is co-authored by Yu Yang of ShanghaiTech University, David De Cremer of Cambridge Judge Business School, and Chao Wang of the University of Illinois.