Title:
IS THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC PROMOTING MORE EMPATHETIC INTERNAL BUSINESS NEGOTIATIONS?

Authors:
Dr. Murillo de Oliveira Dias

Abstract:
Given the unprecedented nature of the crisis produced by the Covid-19 pandemic, social interactions have been somehow affected. One example is the internal, face-to-face negotiations, which are increasingly giving way to virtual ones through e-mail, text, or voice messages, once stakeholders work from home in most cases. Is the Covid-19 pandemic making the internal negotiations more empathetic? A random sample of N=1,000 business negotiations was analyzed, divided into two groups: (i) 500 face-to-face negotiations before the pandemic and (ii) 500 virtual negotiations after the pandemic, to determine whether or not there is a statistically significant difference between the means of both independent groups. Key findings pointed out the increase of 26.01 percent of deal values after the pandemic, and the highest deal value increased four times after the pandemic than before, with a 99 percent confidence interval. The null hypothesis has been rejected. This article provides scholars a reasonable image of the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic in internal business negotiations. The understanding of the case and its consequences are discussed. The current examination finds some conclusion with an end and suggestions for future exploration complete this work.

Keywords:
Internal business negotiations, deal value, management, Covid-19 pandemic