bargaining cost
- noun
- Specialized
:
costo de negociación
- The startup incurred significant bargaining costs while negotiating contracts with suppliers and service providers.
Examples
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Careful planning can minimize bargaining costs, making the negotiation process more efficient for both parties involved.
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Understanding the bargaining costs involved in reaching an agreement is crucial for small businesses to maintain profitability.
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Those institutions that can bargain with the water company, such as large businesses or developments, will consume some resources in the form of bargaining costs.
Academic text (1998) -
We expect that bargaining costs will be a significant issue only for very large users, such as large businesses or perhaps condominial developments that buy their water services collectively.
Academic text (1998) -
Such behavior by plaintiffs creates needless bargaining costs, and when bargaining fails, results in inefficient performance.
Academic text (1997)
Antonyms
How Costly
- Specialized
1
3.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'expenses incurred in reaching an agreement' is directly and compositionally derivable from 'bargaining' (the negotiation process) + 'cost' (expense). This noun+noun construction follows a common, cross-linguistic pattern and, although somewhat domain-specific, a B1 learner who knows both constituents would very likely infer the meaning.
Etymology
Bargaining cost comes from the simple image of paying for the work needed to make a deal: the bargaining, meaning the talks and negotiation, and the cost, meaning the money, time or effort involved. So the phrase means 'the expenses or time spent to reach an agreement'.