Negotiation Management, Analysis and Support
Distributive Negotiations		4
Single issue negotiations

Key concepts

• Issue and issue level (value): The subject being negotiated (e.g., price, quality, delivery) and the specific level or a value (e.g, $15.25, 3 months)
  
  
• Offer: the concrete issue values that one party proposes as a compromise. An offer may be complete (comprehensive) and include values for all the issues or incomplete and include only some issue values.
  
  
• Objective: The underlying reason for a party to negotiate; the party wants to achieve their objectives but their realization depends on the resources controlled by another party. Objectives are often considered equivalent to issues but this is not necessarily the case.

• Offer value (utility): The overall valuation of an offer. It is subjective and may or may-not encompass all negotiated issues. The party's utility is defined on the objectives selected by this party. (Single- and multi-attribute utility theory)

• BATNA: the best alternative to a negotiated agreement. This is the alternative that you can obtain if the current negotiation break down.

Defined by the subject under negotiation, or
Competitive to the subject (great vacation instead of a car).

No offer should be accepted that has value (utility) below BATNA.

• Reservation value (level): the highest and/or lowest value one can accept.

For the buyer it would be the highest price to accept and for the seller - the lowest to accept.

The negotiators cannot afford to accept any offer below (above) the reservation value.

• Contract zone (settlement range): area with all possible agreements

Contract zone is defined by reservation values of both parties.

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