Negotiation Support and Risk Reduction in Collaborative Networks

In face of the current economic turbulence, companies face new challenges. In order to respond to new business opportunities, it is crucial that companies attain strategic alliances so that they can obtain or maintain market competiveness. The formation of alliances and partnerships for collaborative problem solving is of extreme importance, being therefore essential to understand their structures and requirements. To overcome a number of difficulties that may appear in the formation of such alliances, it is necessary to properly model the elements that constitute the alliance agreements through a suitable negotiation support environment that besides the basic functionalities of data storage and alerts can also conduct the entire negotiation process making it traceable. In this context, this paper presents the main requirements of an electronic negotiation support environment in a collaborative network, identifies the main risk sources and drivers in collaborations, and analyses how a negotiation support system can help in reducing the potential risk in collaboration.