Buyer's coalition for optimal search

In the context of the electronic marketplace, the most common coalition formation application is a coalition of buyers, given the incentive of obtaining a volume discount according to the size of the coalition [3]. In this paper we consider an additional benefit of a buyers' coalition, the benefit of improving the search for market opportunities through a coalition, given search costs. The buyer agents are considered to be associated with search costs when there are no available central mechanisms that can supply full immediate information on the entire market opportunities. These search costs reflect the resources that need to be invested in search activities, such as locating seller agents, interacting with them and analyzing and comparing their offers.