The big bang: The evolution of negotiation research

Thompson, L. & Leonardelli, G. (2004) The big bang: The evolution of negotiation research. Academy of Management: Executive, 18 (3), 113-117.

Abstract

There have been few instances in the history of social science in which a practitioner-oriented book served as the wellspring for cutting-edge academic research for over three decades. Getting to Yes is such a book, a timeless book containing timeless concepts that continue to unravel themselves like a mysterious DNA process. In writing this article, we toyed with several analogies, such as “great wine” and “DNA material.” Neither seemed to capture the sheer enormity of the book and the universality of the concepts. So we opted for big and settled upon the “big bang.” The big-bang theory is the dominant scientific theory about the origin of the universe. In 1927, Belgian priest Georges Lemaitre was first to propose that the universe began with the explosion of a primeval atom. We liken the explosion of that atom to the publication of Getting to Yes, and we see the current universe of negotiation theory and research a result of this big bang. Just like the big bang theory of the universe, there is no way to ever prove that Getting to Yes expanded and facilitated the study of negotiation, but in this article, we are going to try to do so by citing some of the most influential empirical research on negotiation since its publication in 1981.