Comments By Dr.george S.spais For Papakonstantinidis Win-win-win Model

I strongly believe that the win-win-win Papakonstantinidis conceptualization is of high value because it comes from theoretical, academic and empirical level starting from the “bargaining games theory analyzing individual winning strategies, through the utilities/shares possible combinations between two “players”. As a marketing scholar, I personally find the concept quiet interesting if a transfer of the pure trust theory to a marketing context can be achieved in order to analyze marketing phenomena, especially the hermeneutics of the types of negotiation in which the buyer and seller of a good/product/service dispute the price which will be paid and the exact nature of the transaction that will take place and eventually come to an agreement. Examining the Papakonstantinidis concept from a marketing aspect, the contribution of the conceptualization in Marketing is also seen if bargaining can be approached as an alternative pricing and promotion strategy to fixed prices. Optimally, if it costs the retailer nothing to engage and allow bargaining, he can divine the buyer’s willingness to spend. It allows for capturing more consumer surplus as it allows price discrimination, a process whereby a seller can charge a higher price to one buyer who is more eager (by being richer or more desperate). Haggling has largely disappeared in parts of the world where the cost to haggle exceeds the gain to retailers for most common retail items. Papakonstantinidis model has a very strong potential to be proven as a “revolution” in the Marketing Science, as it introduces the third pole (community) in the bargaining processes between a seller and a buyer. If a marketing aspect exists to this model, then we are not quiet far from a new era of the Papakonstantinidis model in the marketing literature. I personally believe that the conceptualization can trigger a new research thrust in the fields of promotion management and pricing in the Marketing Science, where new definitions, assumptions and hypotheses can examine better the marketing situations of the bargaining processes among the seller – the buyer – the third pole (the community). It seems that there are some limitations of the conceptualization related to the parameters that determine whether the seller is willing to bargain. Such parameters are religion (for example: Jews had a limit on the allowable profit margin) and regional customization [for example: in North America and Europe bargaining is restricted to expensive or one-of-a-kind items (automobiles, jewellery, art, real estate, trade sales of businesses) and informal sales settings such as flea markets and garage sales. In other regions of the world, bargaining may be the norm even for small commercial transactions]. In terms of empowering Papakonstantinidis conceptualization (strongly related to the integrative/interest based bargaining), it must be proven how the underlined conceptual model interacts and covers the gaps of the other

bargaining theories such as the: processual theory, narrative theory and automated bargaining in more contexts that are social.