Abstract

Theory defines negotiation as a continuous interactive process of decision making, and multilateral negotiations are differentiated from bilateral negotiations because of their wider size, bigger complexity and greater heterogeneity. The work refers to the third parties, i.e. a key stakeholder, as interested entities that enter a negotiation and could eventually act as a facilitator. Even if contemporary approaches have integrated third party intervention in a broad understanding of causes and dynamics of conflicts, by definition third parties do not have a strong partisan position on the substantive issues in dispute. They seem to have been considered mainly as external entities, not fully interested and involved in the negotiation, thus a real interest for the implementation of the final agreement. This review is intended for all those management scholars and practitioners who want to improve their comprehension of how negotiations can be successfully performed. In particular, the review is aimed at filling a current gap in the literature, because it tries to systematize our understanding about multilateral negotiations. In fact, the review focuses on the role that the third who joins can play for achieving integrative agreements.