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have their own interpretation of the contract terms and provisions in an ad hoc manner and for their own benefits. Also, participants will understand the terms of contract base on their experiences and common sense. Sometimes, what was meant to be said may be the determining factor instead of what was actually written in the contract (Ren, 2001; Thomas et al., 1994). Besides, contract terms are usually ambiguous. Sometimes, the risks or responsibilities are not stated explicitly in the contract but is implied. Thus, it is difficult to clearly distinguish the risks or responsibilities of the contracting parties by single or few contract terms. In conclude, different parties in a negotiation intend to use their specific information and expertises to explain, argue and persuade the other party to accept. But they often fail to agree on the basis of a claim and how it should be settled.

In additions, negotiation is evidence-oriented, so information is important to the success of negotiation. However, participants usually hold distributed and asymmetric information due to their different roles. The client knows clearly the final products, budget and financial status. The architect as a project manager knows clearly client＊s requirements, contract document and contractor＊s financial status, progress and quality of the work. However, the contractor knows clearly about the details information such as the actual schedule, progress and the full picture of the claims and the loss incurred (Ren et al., 2001, 2002). These differences will retard the negotiation process.

Besides distributed and asymmetric information, according to the previous researches, inadequate information and poor documentation are the major problems of construction claims. For instance, the lack of authentic evidence is a primary reason of delayed payment and protracted disputes (Ren, 2001; Wood, 1975). Scott (1992) indicated that lack of sufficient recorded data on the effects of delaying and disrupting events is the main reason of failure in claim. Wilson (1982) and Badger and Gay (1996) also emphasized the lack of initial records as the major reason for the failure of claims. These records include minutes of meetings, correspondence, progress reports, photographs, records of delay and disturbance, and revised drawings, etc. If the recording system is not good, it may not easy for the negotiators to gathering all information before the negotiation.

Moreover, negotiation is considered as a time and energy-consuming activity (Ren et al., 2003; Hu, 1997). It is because lots of preparation works such as documentation, arranging meeting and gathering negotiators should be done before the negotiation. Also, negotiation involves exchange of information. It allows the opponent to know the collecting evidence, opponent position anticipation, negotiation objective and strategy analysis (Gulliver, 1979). Late submission of information to opponent will make negotiation inefficient. .

The negotiation may be limited or restricted by some human factors. Negotiators＊ personal abilities and attitudes usually decide the result of negotiations (Ren, 2001). In construction industry, the architects sometimes may have conflicting roles. They can be an independent professional expert as well as an agent of the clients. Currently, the clients rely on the architects and have low involvement in claims management (Vidogah and Ndekugri, 1997).