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Ethically Questionable Negotiation Strategies in South Asia: A Comparative Study of India and Pakistan

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Abstract

The past decades have seen increased integration of South Asia into the global economy, yet the study on management practices in this region is behind its expansion of business. This study explores the impact of tribalism and collectivism on ethically questionable negotiation strategies in two of the most important emerging economies in South Asia – India and Pakistan. The empirical results show that participants from Pakistan consider ethically questionable negotiation strategies to be more appropriate than those from India due to high tribalism in Pakistan. In addition, this study further shows that collectivism is significantly related to the perceived appropriateness of ethically questionable negotiation strategies in Pakistan but not in India. Implications and future research for contextualizing international business research and human management practices in South Asia are then discussed.

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Funding

This study was partially funded by a RIF grant from Odette School of Business, University of Windsor (#822086), Canada.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Economics and Management, Harbin Institute of Technology Shenzhen, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China

    Zhenzhong Ma

  2. Odette School of Business, University of Windsor, Windsor, ON, Canada

    Zhenzhong Ma, Guangrui Guo, Jagdish Pathak & Young Ho Song

  3. School of Business, Nanjing Audit University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China

    Kun Li

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  1. Zhenzhong Ma
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Correspondence to Zhenzhong Ma.

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Ma, Z., Li, K., Guo, G. et al. Ethically Questionable Negotiation Strategies in South Asia: A Comparative Study of India and Pakistan. Group Decis Negot 32, 1289–1314 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10726-023-09844-y

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