This study examines the styles of negotiations that venture entrepreneurs and negotiators of venture companies have in the context of the rapid environmental change that venture entrepreneurs are facing recently and the negotiation factor emerging as ...
This study examines the styles of negotiations that venture entrepreneurs and negotiators of venture companies have in the context of the rapid environmental change that venture entrepreneurs are facing recently and the negotiation factor emerging as a basic competency that venture entrepreneurs should have in another context of entrepreneurship. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the relationship between negotiation style and investment attraction performance.
From the perspective of how to approach negotiation, venture entrepreneurs have a negotiation style that is a product of various factors such as cultural background, social context, learning, and growth environment, and that affects venture entrepreneurs which negotiation techniques to choose and which negotiation strategies and tactics to use according to the negotiation style (Shell, 2006).
In this context, we tried to examine the mediating effect of negotiation competency in the relationship between negotiation style and investment attraction performance.
In the case of venture companies, in particular, the most important negotiation performance to achieve through negotiations is the investment attraction for financing, so the dependent variable in this study is investment attraction performance.
On the matter of negotiation styles studied by previous studies, there are two representative negotiation style studies: first, the negotiation styles dealt with in two aspects selected from various fields(e.g. Lax & Sebenius, 1986; Axelrod, 1984; Menkel-Meadow, 1984; Williams, 1983; Fisher & Ury, 1981), second, the negotiation styles(e. g. Blake & Mouton, 1964; Thomas & Kilman, 1976; Rahim & Bonoma, 1979; Pruitt & Carnevale, 1993; Minho Kim & Miyoung Ahn, 2019).divided into five styles based on the two aspects. But, each individual researcher shows a difference in the definition of the negotiation styles.
Accordingly, in this study, the five styles were collectively divided into two styles that comprehensively include, in particular, the hard negotiation style and the soft negotiation style suggested in the studies of Fisher & Ury (1981) and Abramson (2018).
Negotiation competency is the negotiation execution capacity of various styles of strategies and tactics that venture entrepreneurs must take during the negotiation process. Although each scholar has studied language, persuasion, professionalism, responsibility, preparatory work, intellectual competency, coordination and integration, and communication as components of negotiation competency in various ways, concrete and systematic research has not been activated (Artinger et al. al., 2015).
Accordingly, researchers have come to recognize that negotiation competency is not a single specific skill, but a complex of various technologies or competency factors that evenly affect the overall negotiation process. On the other hand, the factors that various researchers have argued in common were arranged in connection with the negotiation process, and classified into information capability, negotiation strategy tactical capability, and negotiation capability (Bak Sang-gi et al., 2022).
In addition, information competency consists of information acquisition capability and information analysis capability. Negotiation strategy tactic capability consists of information negotiation strategy tactics capability, opponent negotiation strategy tactic identification and response capability, counterpart negotiation prediction capability, and negotiation scenario development capability. , the negotiation capability was composed of the opponent's negotiation strategy analysis capability, negotiation risk management capability, negotiation logic and story development capability, opponent's resistance control capability, and trust and favorability generation and increase capability (Bak Sang-gi et al., 2022).
Since there are various styles of companies, it is difficult to objectively compare the amount of direct investment. Therefore, the performance of investment attraction was divided into financial performance and non-financial performance perceived by venture entrepreneurs and venture business negotiators.
The research model of this study, composed of the above factors, examined the relationship between the negotiation style and the investment attraction performance, using the negotiation style as the independent variable and the investment attraction performance as the dependent variable. Also, the mediating effect of negotiation capacity was examined in relation to negotiation style and investment attraction performance.
The sample participating in this study was targeted at venture founders and negotiating practitioners of venture SMEs conducting negotiations for the purpose of attracting investment. A total of two-hundred and fifty (250) copies were distributed in a way that a questionnaire was conducted and collected using the questionnaire form of SNS, and two-hundred and ten(210) of the two-hundred and fifty (250) respondents responded.
As analysis tools, SPSS 24.0 statistical package and AMOS 24.0 statistical package programs were used. In addition, the research model to achieve the purpose of this study was verified through frequency analysis, exploratory factor analysis, reliability analysis, correlation analysis, path analysis, and multiple mediation effect analysis.
Reviewing the analysis results, the analysis results for Hypothesis 1 (the relationship between the negotiation style and the investment attraction performance) showed that the effect of the hard negotiation style on the financial and non-financial performance was statistically significant, and the soft negotiation style was found to have a statistically significant effect on non-financial performance, so hypotheses 1-1, 1-2, and 1-4 were adopted.
As a result of the analysis of hypothesis 2 (the relationship between negotiation style and negotiation competency), it was revealed that the hard negotiation style had a statistically significant effect on the information management competency, negotiation strategy and tacticcompetency, and negotiation execution competency, and the soft negotiation style had a statistically significant effect on negotiation strategy tactical competency and negotiation execution competency, but did not affect information management competency, Hypotheses 2-1, 2-2, 2-3, 2-5, and 2-6 were adopted.
As a result of the analysis of Hypothesis 3 (the relationship between negotiation capacity and investment attraction performance), it showed that information management competency had a statistically significant effect on financial and non-financial performance, and negotiation strategy and tactic competency had a significant effect on non-financial performance. However, negotiation strategy and tactic competency does not have a statistically significant effect on financial performance, and negotiation execution competency does not appear to have a statistically significant effect on financial and non-financial performance. Consequently, Hypothesis 3-1, 3 -2, 3-4 were adopted.
The analysis results for Hypothesis 4 (the mediating role of negotiation capacity in the relationship between negotiation style and investment attraction performance) are, first, the mediating role of negotiation competency in the relationship between negotiation style and financial performance, and second, the mediating role of negotiation competency in relationship between negotiation style and non-financial performance.
In the relationship between negotiation style and financial performance, only information management competency was found to have a mediating effect, and in the relationship between negotiation style and non-financial performance, information management competency and negotiation strategy and tactic competency appeared to have a mediating effect. Consequently, hypothesis 4-1-1 and hypotheses 4-2-1 and 4-2-2 were adopted.
The most remarkable feature of this study is that the research to explore the correlation between negotiation competency according to the style of negotiation, which has only been vaguely speculated, was executed by subjecting the entrepreneurs or employee negotiators of the companies who actually negotiate in business reality not by subjecting the students in the classroom who are not actual negotiators.
To add, the contents and items of the previous questionnaire measuring negotiation styles and negotiation competencies had inherent limitations in accurately reflecting actual business negotiation as the questionnaire items and measurements were developed with the background of psychology and behavioral studies not of negotiation. However, since the contents and items of the questionnaire in this study are based on the concepts and situation that occurs in the actual business negotiation, though the shortcomings of the negotiation style and negotiation competency evaluation index measurement used in previous studies may not be completely removed but are significantly improved in this study. It is a clear research achievement.
Remarkably, during the conducting this research, the new measurement of negotiation competency, which had been less adequate and inferior in terms of quantity and quality of research, compared with the development and accomplishment of the various research approaches and measurement tools, was designed specifically segmental and developed to be utilized reflecting the reality of negotiation. It can be duly evaluated that it has provided a meaningful steppingstone for the future development of negotiation research.
As a result, negotiation style studies have been conducted based on the assumption that characteristics, once defined, rarely change due to the nature of psychology science. Therefore, the negotiation style, which deemed to potentially contain some immutable characteristics, has a negative perception that it is difficult to improve, difficult to develop, and difficult to adjust. However, through this study, we came to discover that anyone with a negotiation style can precisely develop and improve their negotiation skills through proper negotiation education and training and expert coaching that could bring a change to his negotiation style, consequently. This awakening discovery is the greatest achievement of this study.
Until now, there has been a myth that negotiation competency is innate and one's negotiation style has been recognized as an area that cannot be developed or improved. Through this study, it is expected that the negotiation competency and negotiation style of most people, including entrepreneurs, will be re-recognized as a controllable area that can be improved and developed through education, training, and professional coaching.
Negotiation competency is one of the most important core competencies for entrepreneurs who start up, nurture and develop companies. Negotiation competency is not one of the inherently fixed and immutable characteristics of each individual, but a capability that can be developed and improved as much as possible. It is considered to have sufficient meaning and value for spurring research with the most focus in entrepreneurship research.