How entrepreneurs negotiate? Insights from a Systematic Literature Review

How many negotiation opportunities do entrepreneurs have in their venture creation journey? Securing funding, for example, requires passing competitive selection processes, followed by negotiations with investors. Beyond resource acquisition, negotiation also initiates relationships, allowing partners to get to know each other and assess compatibility. Despite its importance, research lacks a consistent understanding of negotiation as a structured decision-making process in entrepreneurial contexts. To address this gap, we systematically review 71 academic articles, categorizing them into four themes: negotiation parties, processes, contexts, and outcomes. Our findings show that the literature mainly focuses on entrepreneur-investor negotiations, neglecting other players such as team members, suppliers, and frontliners. We highlight the need to examine how cognitive and emotional dynamics shape negotiations and how entrepreneurial teams negotiate internally to navigate uncertainty and align strategic decisions. This paper specifically proposes future research agendas for each theme to contribute to the intersection of entrepreneurship and negotiation.