Agent-based decentralized coordination for electronic markets

Enterprises face stiff competition and the pressure to improve efficiency and productivity. Since the cost of production could be reduced in the last years, further reductions can be obtained e.g. by spreadin g production processes over organizational boundaries to use the key competenci es of the involved organizations. This shift increases the number of e xternal links and transactions of enterprises and leads to a change from hierarchi cal coordinated organizations to business networks. The resulting decentralizatio n requires new and efficient ways of coordination to ensure that the rise in pro ductivity is not lowered or even over-compensated by coordination overhead.