Best alternative to a negotiated agreement - Definition and Overview

The best alternative to a negotiated agreement or BATNA is a concept in negotiation theory. It is the course of action that will be taken by a party if the current negotiations fail and an agreement cannot be reached.

If the current negotiations are giving you less value than your BATNA, there is no point in proceeding. Prior to the start of negotiations, the parties should have ascertained their own individual BATNAs.

BATNA was developed by negotiation researchers Roger Fisher and Bill Ury of the Harvard Program on Negotiation (PON), in their series of books on Principled Negotiation that started with Getting to YES. Nobel Laureate John Forbes Nash has included such ideas in his early undergraduate research.