Exploring Semantic Relationships in Online Negotiations: A Computational Analysis of Post-pandemic Linguistic Trends and Perceptions

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, online negotiations have become a central site of professional transformation, reflecting broader changes in organizational communication and decision-making practices. This research investigates how accelerated digitization has reshaped the discursive landscape of negotiation by analyzing semantic patterns through advanced natural language processing techniques, including N-gram modeling and co-occurrence network analysis. Drawing on a corpus of qualitative interview data from interviews with managerial-level participants involved in online negotiation, the results reveal important linguistic trends - in particular the importance of online negotiation as a dominant theme and its frequent juxtaposition with traditional face-to-face formats. Semantic network mapping exposes robust interconnections between key constructs, suggesting a cognitive reframing of negotiation logics in digital environments. The study contributes to the emerging body of knowledge about digital discourse in professional contexts by providing empirical insights into how global disruptions catalyze linguistic and conceptual change. These findings lay the foundation for future interdisciplinary investigations of language, technology, and negotiation dynamics in post-pandemic organizational contexts.